Old Habits: A Sonamy Fanfiction
by KatherineRenniks
Summary: Amy Rose, now 22 years old, is a full-fledged agent at GUN, along with her lifelong best friends Rouge (24) and Sticks (20). She's been on assignment for the past six years, keeping Mobius safe. She left Boom Beach years ago after a fight with her best friend at the time, Sonic. Now, all this time later, she's been reassigned to Boom Beach. SonAmy, KnuxOuge, TailsxSticks, Silvaze.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 _Left. Right. Jump. Crap, was that a piece of me or a piece of the robot? Doesn't matter now. Oh, incoming, duck! Wow, that laser is twice the size of me._

Dodging and weaving, Amy Rose bounced from wall to wall, easily avoiding one of Dr. Eggman's newest creations, designed to bring about her early death. Unfortunately for him, she'd learned a thing or two since their last encounter, almost six years ago.

"Do you ever stand still?" Eggman ground out, unable to keep up with her.

"Nope," she replied, hanging from a ceiling bar. "I stopped making that mistake the last time one of your robots managed to take off half of my finger."

"Fair enough," he conceded, firing in her direction, but she quickly let go, landing ten feet below without so much as a stumble.

When she'd first broken through the wall of his lair, Eggman almost hadn't recognized her. Instead of the small 16-year-old carrying a giant hammer, she was now fully mature. She stood almost a foot taller than she used to, and she no longer wore her classic red dress. She now sported a red sport tank, just short enough to allow a small bit of her midsection to peek through and give away a tiny navel piercing. She also wore grey tights, red sneakers, and she no longer used her hammer, preferring instead to fight with her own two hands. Her short pink hair had grown out slightly, long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail, but still short enough that pieces occasionally fell out and framed her face. The biggest difference was that she now sported a GUN badge as well as a six-inch long scar on the inside of her right thigh, from another fight, he assumed.

Much more annoying, she was now on the same combat level as the most capable agents he had fought before. And if there was one thing the two of them had in common, it was that they both hated to lose.

Unfortunately for him, it couldn't be avoided today. His robot was clearly inferior to her skills.

"Fine, I'll concede for today," he sighed, turning the robot's combat mode off. "But make no mistake, I'm not finished with this little project by any means."

"Fine by me," Amy shrugged, smirking from her place on top of one of the lab tables. "This is great exercise."

"I'll see you around, Rose," he shouted before vanishing in a flash of blue light.

Amy quickly hopped down off the table, surveying the damage. The lab had held up surprisingly well, with all of the walls still standing. She spotted something on the wall, a flat grey panel, and grinned to herself before opening it and quickly using the small taser she kept on her to fry the entire system.

"WHAT THE-" she heard, just as all the electricity in the building went off. She laughed, turning away from the smoking fuse box, and slipped out the window to her left.

The GUN office had finally installed teleportation pads, which was a huge relief for the agents, because it made it that much easier for them to get to where they had been assigned for the day. Amy appeared on one of the far ones in a brilliant blue flash of light, stepping off of it in case someone was right behind her. Unlikely, considering it was a Sunday and most of the agents had the weekend off. Including her, actually, but Amy had never really liked time off.

She took the stairs four flights up to the lounge that all of the agents shared and pushed through the door. It was a nice little place, with a few couches, a back room with bunk beds for sleeping, a fridge and stove, and a small TV in the corner so that they could keep up with the news.

"Lose any more fingers today?" a voice called from one of the couches.

Amy grinned at the sight of one of her best friends, Rouge, a white bat, spread out across the couch. She wore her usual uniform of a pink tech shirt, a pair of black shorts, specially-made white combat boots, and her pink communicator on her right wrist. Her black wings fluttered absently at the breeze coming in through the back window.

"Not today," she replied, plopping down beside her. "Ended in a stalemate, but I managed to take out all of Egghead's electricity before I bounced."

"Nice," Rouge giggled. "I bet that went over well. Did you hear? We're being reassigned."

"Finally," Amy sighed. "As much as I love annoying Eggman, I'm dying for something good. Where to?"

"O'Malley didn't say," Rouge said, referring to their director. "He just asked us to come around when we were finished for the day. And he asked us to bring Sticks, too."

"Who's bringing me where?" a voice called, and Rouge and Amy both jumped, searching for the source. Eventually, Amy looked up to see that one of the ceiling tiles had been slightly moved and that a pair of earnest brown eyes were peeking out of the dark at them.

"Sticks, should I even ask?" Amy sighed.

"Probably not," Sticks replied, swinging down from her hiding spot with ease. "I don't even know."

"Well, then come on," Rouge implored, standing up and shaking out her wings with a rustling noise. "I'm curious to see where they're sending us."

"But I just sat down," Amy whined, grinning down at her friends. Sticks took this as an invitation to swing Amy up over her shoulder and run out of the room towards the director's office. "STICKS!"

Rouge sighed at the two of them. "I need new friends."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Sticks, please put Agent Rose down," Jack O'Malley sighed, logging into his computer.

"Sorry, sir," Sticks apologized, deadpan, before dumping Amy off. The pink hedgehog nimbly landed on her feet and glared at Sticks, giving her a shove. Rouge followed the girls into the large frosted-glass office, and the three of them sat down in the hard plastic chairs facing O'Malley's desk.

"So, are you going to tell us where we're being reassigned, or do we have to guess and hope we get close?" Rouge asked sarcastically, leaning forward.

"I could fire you for speaking to me like that," he replied firmly.

"But you won't."

"No, I won't," he sighed. "Because I haven't been able to find anyone else who's willing to take this assignment."

"I love being last choice," Sticks muttered.

"It's not last choice. Actually, you guys are perfect for this. Sticks and Rose have been there before, anyway."

Amy's mind went slightly blank. She already knew what he was going to say.

 _"Hey," she heard a voice behind her remark, but she was too comfortable to even move, just blinking one eye open lazily. She was lounging on the beach, on her stomach, wearing a red polka-dot bikini top and a pair of jean shorts. Her short pink hair was pulled back with her favorite red headband, and the late sun was just beginning to set._

 _A familiar blue hedgehog was standing above her, his gaze flicking over her body. She felt a smidgen of satisfaction at this, fully knowing that her best friend and long-time (secret) crush had been noticing her body as it matured more and more lately. Her breasts were just beginning to grow, at the point where they were just noticeable, and she had visible hips now._

 _"You're staring," she remarked, turning over so that the sun could hit her bare stomach._

 _"A-am not!" he protested. She loved seeing him flustered, because it was such a rare occurrence._

 _"I'm joking," she giggled, getting up and brushing the sand off her backside. She set off down towards the water, and he followed closely behind._

 _The two stood side-by-side, about a foot apart, letting the warm ocean water wash over their feet._

 _"So what'd you do today?" Sonic asked, finally breaking the silence._

 _"This," Amy laughed, spreading her arms out to indicate the whole of the beach. "It was so quiet all day, I just couldn't bring myself to leave."_

 _"Lucky," he replied. "Some of us don't get to lounge around the beach all day."_

 _"Really?" she inquired, arching an eyebrow. "Then what did you do all day?"_

 _"Well… I played soccer with Tails, Knuckles, Silver, and Shadow…" he muttered, avoiding her gaze._

 _"Mhmm," she smirked._

 _"You look… nice," Sonic complimented her, beginning to blush and still avoiding her eyeline._

 _"Yeah? Come get me," she taunted, wading out into the water. She knew how much he hated swimming. But he also hated losing. So she was only mildly surprised when a hand closed around her arm and pulled her down under the water. The two popped up seconds later, laughing too hard to catch their breath. A cinema-style splash war ensued, and it only ended when Sonic grabbed her around the waist and squeezed, something he used to do all the time when they were kids._

 _Only now, they both realized that they weren't kids anymore. They also realized just how close they were to one another._

 _Amy, too cautious to say anything, just stared. Sonic finally broke the silence. "Got you."_

 _She let out a half exhale, half laugh just before he leaned in and kissed her._

 _She was completely caught off guard, and her eyes went wide just before they drifted shut of their own accord._

 _Sonic had no idea what he was doing, or what had possessed him to kiss her, but the second he captured her mouth with his own, his mind when blank and he realized just how well the two of them fit together. She tasted like bubble gum, and her soft hair fluttered around his face._

 _Amy was vaguely aware of the sensation of Sonic's hands brushing over her hips, but she was more focused on his tongue tracing the delicate line of her upper lip. It felt REALLY good, and she let a tiny squeak slip out. He smiled into the kiss, slightly amused by the sound she'd just made._

 _"Are you two KISSING?!" a voice screamed from the shore. The two broke apart to see Knuckles, Tails, and Sticks standing on the shore and staring at them._

 _They quickly scampered out of the water and went up to meet their friends, both of them blushing furiously._

 _"Were you two just making out in the middle of the ocean?" Knuckles asked, raising his eyebrows._

 _Amy opened her mouth, but Sonic cut her off. "No! We weren't!"_

 _She glanced at him with some confusion on her face._

 _"Dude, we saw you," Tails pointed out._

 _Sonic looked over at her, fear written across his features. "S-she dared me. You guys know I have a twelve-game running streak of Truth or Dare!"_

 _Sticks shrugged. "Fair enough. Hey, you guys want to come to the movies with us?"_

 _"Wait, I'm still-" Knuckles interrupted, but Sticks stomped on his foot and he shut up._

 _"Sure, we'll be right there," Sonic nodded. Sticks led the other two boys off the beach, both of them glancing back at Sonic with strange looks on their faces. Sonic turned to face Amy, the air between them thick with betrayal._

 _"Wow," she snorted._

 _"Amy, what did you want me to-"_

 _"You could have said anything else! If it's so embarrassing for you, why'd you kiss me in the first place?" she yelled._

 _"I don't know!" he cried desperately. "I just didn't want them to-"_

 _"What, you didn't want them to make fun of you? You made that pretty clear," she retorted._

 _"Amy, come on, I shouldn't have done it. It was a mistake," he pleaded, and hurt flashed across her face._

 _"Right," she answered, her voice faltering slightly. "Great to know my first real kiss was nothing but a mistake."_

 _"Come on, Amy," he begged, putting a hand on her shoulder._

 _"Screw you," she hissed, shoving his hand off and turning quickly, flying back towards her house as quickly as her legs would carry her._

The memory shook Amy like an earthquake, and it was clear Rouge had noticed, because she quickly grabbed Amy's hand under the desk and squeezed. Sticks and Rouge had both heard the story exactly once, the first night they had all become full agents, and none of them had ever mentioned it again.

"You're joking," Sticks groaned. "Boom Beach? Really? What could there possibly be there that-"

"Chaos Emeralds," O'Malley interrupted her. "Agent Shadow was assigned to the case, and he managed to find four of them before he had to be reassigned to a new mission. We've spoken with a contact there who already has one of them-"

"Knuckles," Amy whispered to Rouge, still dazed.

"-and your job is going to be to spend the next few months there. We need to find the last two, and fast. There have been stirrings from Mephiles lately, and we're starting to become concerned."

"Wait," Sticks stopped him. "If Mephiles is stirring, then what about-"

"Blaze? We've gone that route too," O'Malley finished.

Blaze the Cat was a distant ally of GUN and a personal friend of Amy and Rouge. Years ago, she had contained Iblis by sealing it inside herself and, in turn, agreeing to contain it for as long as she lived. If Mephiles was stirring, then so was Iblis.

"She's been feeling things," O'Malley continued. "We're keeping a close eye on her, and she's been extremely cooperative. We have a standing meeting twice a week, and she's already agreed to commit herself to captivity here if it becomes too much."

"I'd like to see her soon," Amy said suddenly. "If it isn't too much trouble."

"I'll let you know the next time she comes in," O'Malley agreed, writing it down in his calendar. "The three of you need to leave tonight, if you can. Boom Beach doesn't have teleportation pads, which means you'll have to fly out late tonight. We'll confirm the tickets within the next hour."

"How long are we stationed there?" Rouge asked.

"As long as it takes," he replied, shaking his head slightly.

The three girls left the office, with Sticks and Rouge slightly supporting Amy.

"You don't have to do this," Sticks murmured.

"Of course I do," Amy sighed. "It's my job. I'm a big girl."

"Still," Rouge argued. "I know you don't want to see him, but if we're there, you're going to have to. There's no way around it."

"Just because I have to see him doesn't mean we have to get along," Amy stated firmly, walking ahead of the girls. Rouge and Sticks shared a look, then hurried after their friend.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sonic the Hedgehog was sitting cross-legged on Boom Beach, drawing scribbles in the sand, when a soccer ball nailed him in the head.

"Ow! What the hell, you guys?" he yelled, whipping it back in the direction of a muscular red echidna and a tall, lanky golden fox.

"Sorry," Knuckles responded, catching the ball with ease. "Come on, we could use a third!"

"Nah, I'm not in the mood tonight," he sighed, looking back out over the water. Tails stared out at his friend. Usually, he was cocky, energetic, and wanted to do nothing but run, but every once in a while, he would get like this. He knew exactly what it was about, too, even if Sonic didn't want anyone else to know.

Sonic stretched his legs out in the sand, examining the small cuts that adorned his shins. Shadow had given him a run for his money in training the other day before he'd had to take off. But, you know, that's what training was for.

He had one specific thing on his mind tonight, the same thing that was always on his mind when he got in one of his moods.

 _"She was really pissed," he admitted to Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow. The four were down at the one bar that existed on Boom Beach._

 _"Well, you could have just told us," Tails reasoned. Sonic glared at his friend, annoyed by his ever-present rationality._

 _"Yeah, that would have gone over well with you guys."_

 _"You people have the dumbest problems," Shadow grumbled. "I'm literally the Ultimate Life Form, and I'm sitting here drinking beer and listening to you cry about a girl."_

 _"Oh yeah? What would you have done?" Sonic retorted._

 _"Well, for starters, I wouldn't have stopped at kissing her," Shadow raised his eyebrows, baiting Sonic. It worked. Sonic let out a low growl, his spines raising slightly._

 _"Fuck you," Sonic spit._

 _"Hey, chill out," Shadow replied, holding his hands up. "You wanted my advice."_

 _"What are you going to do now?" Knuckles inquired, sliding his pint glass from one hand to the other._

 _"I don't know," Sonic sighed. "Apologize, I guess, and hope she forgives me."_

 _"Forgiveness never was Rose's strong suit," Shadow muttered._

 _"For once, I agree with Shadow," Tails chimed in._

 _Three beers later, the four headed back to their shared cabin, pleasantly buzzed but not quite wasted. Sonic was beginning to feel a little better, and he was already formulating a plan to try and win Amy back._

 _"I'm pooped," Tails yawned. "I call the hammock."_

 _"Over my dead body," Sonic grinned, speeding over to the hammock and quickly jumping in, butt-first. Something crinkled under him. "Huh?"_

 _"What's wrong?" Knuckles asked. Tails pouted next to him._

 _Sonic reached under himself and pulled out a rumpled note addressed to… "It's for you, Tails."_

 _"Hm?" Tails asked, reaching out for the note. He glanced over it quickly and his face went very pale._

 _"What?" Shadow asked, straining over his shoulder to read the note. "Oh, jeez."_

 _"What's it say?" Sonic asked, hopping up out of the hammock._

 _"Sonic…" Tails began, but Sonic, quicker than was visible, took the note and began to read._

 _"Tails,_

 _I hope everyone's doing okay. I've had a really wonderful job offer from GUN, courtesy of Rouge. I won't lie, I asked her if they had any openings. If we're being honest, it doesn't feel right for me to stay here any longer. I'm packing right after I write this, so when you read it, I'll be on a plane to their headquarters. I couldn't say goodbye to everyone. I'd be too sad to see you guys go. I'm not coming back. You guys are more than welcome to stay in my old place. Tails, you have been one of the most wonderful friends to me and I love you more than I can say. Thank you for everything you've done for me over the years. I swear that, one day, I'll make it all up to you. Please take care of everyone else. You always were the most levelheaded one._

 _Love,_

 _Amy_

 _"_

 _"No," Sonic whispered._

 _"There's more than one," Shadow noted, raising his eyebrows at the other three notes on the table, each addressed to rest of the guys._

 _"Shadow,_

 _I know you aren't one for mushy stuff, or feelings in general, so I won't make this letter long. Actually, I may be seeing you around headquarters. I hope that I do. As much as you hate to admit it, you're a good friend, Shadow, and I'll miss seeing you every day._

 _Love,_

 _Amy_

 _"_

 _"Knuckles,_

 _I know you're going to be upset with me, but I hope you can understand that I just had to go. Take care of Boom Beach for me, okay? You're the strongest person I've ever met, and I trust you to take care of things around there. Don't let Egghead push you around too much. Maybe I'll see you again someday and we can have one last soccer match._

 _Love,_

 _Amy_

 _"_

 _The first two notes were addressed to Shadow and Knuckles. Shadow sniffed at his, but Tails could have sworn he saw a tiny smile on the dark hedgehog's face as he turned away and tucked the note into his right shoe. Knuckles, on the other hand, was bawling like a baby, spilling tears all over his note._

 _Sonic opened his note with shaky hands._

 _"Sonic,_

 _I had to go. I'm not coming back. Take care of things around there._

 _Amy_

 _"_

 _"That's all she said to you?" Shadow asked._

 _"Yep," Sonic sighed, clenching the note in his fist._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The plane was uncomfortable.

For a multi-million dollar organization, you would think that they would spring for something a little more plush, but that wasn't what GUN was really about. And usually, Amy wasn't either, but all she wanted to do was sleep right now, and that was made near impossible by the cramped quarters and small seat.

"About thirty minutes until we touch down," Rouge sighed, making her way down the narrow aisle and shaking out her thin wings. "You doing all right?"

"Would you quit asking me that?" Amy snapped, then she sighed. "Oh, Rouge, I'm sorry. I'm just sort of wound up."

"I don't blame you," the bat replied, swinging herself down into the seat next to Amy. "I haven't even met these guys and I'm already anxious. They sound like a lot of trouble."

"Not all of them," Amy murmured. "You'll like Tails, he was always a sweetheart. Smart as all get out, too. I don't think we ever found anything that he couldn't fix, or make with his bare hands, or improve. And he was always the one I went to with my problems."

"So a tech genius, huh? We could use one of those around the agency," Rouge smiled thoughtfully.

"Not likely," Amy shook her head. "He's as loyal to Sonic as anyone I've ever seen. I can't see him ever abandoning the Freedom Fighters."

Rouge shrugged. "Shame."

"Knuckles is going to try to flirt with you, so be warned," Amy continued, still looking out the window. "He does that with anything that's female and moves. You'll probably think he's attractive, though. He was always a good friend, and usually protective of me."

"Now he sounds interesting," Rouge purred, smirking at Amy. "You're going to have to introduce me to him."

"Knuckles never flirted with me," Sticks quipped, and Amy looked up to see her hanging from a cargo net on the ceiling with one hand and eating an apple with the other.

"That's because you were nutty," Amy responded.

"True that," Sticks shrugged.

"So who else is over there? Besides the obvious, of course," Rouge questioned.

"Well, you'll probably meet Shadow. He's in and out of the agency from time to time, but I've never seen him around. He tends to pop into Boom Beach about once a week. He says it's to keep an eye on things, but he just likes having friends," Amy replied. "And I'm sure we'll come across Blaze and Silver at some point, especially if Iblis is stirring. Blaze will want to be somewhere quiet outside of her own dimension, and where Blaze goes, Silver usually follows."

"I haven't seen those two in forever," Sticks supplied. "I miss them."

"Well, most of your friends sound fabulous," smiled Rouge. "But I need you to be real with me for a minute, Amy. How do you want us to go about things with Sonic?"

Amy sighed. "I knew that would come up."

"Well, I just need to know how to act," Rouge explained.

"I know," Amy conceded. "I don't really want anything to do with him, so I'll probably just try to make myself scarce and focus on the mission. You should at least introduce yourself, though. I'm sure he'd love to meet you."

"You know he's going to want to see you," Sticks reminded her. "It's been six years and, let's face it, you two used to be best friends."

"Well, we aren't anymore," Amy fired off, standing up and making her way back to the bathroom.

Sticks and Rouge shared a concerned look. "I'm so tempted to get involved," Rouge murmured. "Six years? He REALLY screwed her over, didn't he?"

"You have no idea," Sticks sighed, looking after her best friend. The sound of the landing gear grinding down startled the two girls, and they had just enough time before they landed to peer out the side window of the plane and see a vast expanse of forest and beach below them.

"Wow, what a beautiful place," Rouge sighed.

Amy's first thought when she stepped off the plane was that it was much hotter here than it was basically anywhere else on Mobius. She was exceedingly glad that she had ditched her usual grey sport leggings for a pair of grey, tight shorts. They were high enough that they covered up her belly button piercing, but short enough that they proudly displayed the long scar on her thigh.

Two very different things. The navel piercing had been Rouge's idea. Amy had originally wanted a tattoo, but had chickened out when they got to the place, so Rouge had said that this was the second best thing. Sticks had come along and the fearless young woman had gotten a tattoo of her name in glyphs across her left shoulder blade. Rouge had joined Amy in piercing their belly buttons. It had hurt, but not badly enough for Amy to actually show any pain. Her pain tolerance had drastically increased since she was a child. The time that the robot cut off half of her finger, Amy had calmly finished Eggman off, spent about ten minutes searching for the other half of her finger, and when she didn't find it, she wrapped her hand in her tank top and had walked back into the agency in just her leggings and sports bra, trailing blood behind her. It had taken twenty minutes to convince her to have it stitched up.

The scar, on the other hand, had been from a battle with Metal Sonic. It was her very first assignment since she had left Boom Beach, and the robot's likeness to her best friend had caught her very much off guard. It had managed to slip around her and fire a fairly large laser right into her leg. Rouge had managed to get her to the hospital about five minutes before she bled out. It had taken her a long time to be confident enough to show off the scar, but now she considered it a proud battle wound. It stretched from the inside of her knee to about six inches up her leg, much darker pink than the rest of her skin and very easily seen.

Amy shook her head and looked around. Everything looked pretty much the same, except that Meh Burger had finally been closed down and had been replaced with something else. It looked like a small family restaurant. The sound of the ocean echoed its way from the beach, and Amy closed her eyes and allowed her body to take everything in.

"Amy," Sticks said incredulously, nudging her and pointing to something on the horizon. "Look!"

Amy and Rouge both squinted until the thing came into clearer view. It was a tall, lanky golden fox, sporting a clean white lab coat, his ever-present pair of goggles, and not one, but two fluffy, swishing tails. When the fox got just a few feet away, he waved and grinned hugely.

"Tails!" Amy yelled, sprinting over and crashing into him, knocking him over. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tightly.

"Yeah, I missed you too," Tails laughed, hugging her back, secretly tearing up. "Oh, incoming…"

"TAILS!" Sticks cried, jumping on top of both of them and breaking into loud sobs. Eventually, the three composed themselves and got up, brushing dirt off of their backsides.

"Tails, this is my partner and best friend, Rouge," Amy introduced.

"Lovely to meet you," Tails smiled, shaking Rouge's hand. "O'Malley told me to expect you guys. I'm his contact over here."

"I should have guessed," Amy grinned, shaking her head. "You grew up, Tails."

"So did you," Tails gestured. Both Amy and Sticks looked so different! Amy had completely changed, but Sticks still looked a little bit like the badger that had followed her best friend to GUN six years ago. She no longer wore her brown top and skirt, but now wore a green tech shirt, a pair of calf-length brown leggings, custom-made green sneakers, and she still carried her boomerang, although it was now made of metal and was distinctly more lethal looking. "I fixed up your old place for you guys, Amy. I thought you could stay there."

"Thanks, Tails," Sticks grinned. Tails was struck by how much the badger had matured in just six years. Her blue eyes still maintained their youthful sparkle, but looked much less naive. She still wore her hair in her signature pigtails, though. She'd turned into a strikingly beautiful woman.

"I'm going to go unpack, I think," Rouge indicated. "You guys coming?"

"Right behind ya," Sticks replied.

"Actually, I think I'm going to hang back for a minute. There's a few things Tails and I need to clear up, if it's okay with you two," Amy admitted.

"Of course," Rouge smiled kindly. "We'll see you back at the house in a little while." The bat and the badger started down the path towards Amy's old place, occasionally shoving each other good-naturedly.

"So, on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you?" Amy asked sheepishly, folding her hands behind her back.

"Five," Tails replied, doing a "meh" hand gesture. "I mean, we all pretty much know why you left. Sonic told us about it before we found the notes. So I guess I can't really blame you for that. But I am mad about the fact that you essentially went and joined one of the most dangerous agencies in this timeline."

"Fair enough," Amy conceded, pressing her legs together so that Tails wouldn't be able to see her scar. No reason to make him even more mad. "But they trained me well over there."

"I don't doubt it," Tails smiled. "I'll have to test you out in training soon. I'm no slouch either these days."

"I'd love nothing more," Amy grinned, bumping shoulders with him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"This place is so cute," Rouge noted, putting her black duffel bag down by the window. "Amy really used to live here?"

"Yep!" Sticks replied. "I'd go stay in my burrow, but I don't think it's there anymore. I'll just take the couch in here."

"Fine by me," the bat shrugged. "I'd rather take the hammock anyway."

"Actually, Amy will probably put you in the bed. She always slept in the hammock. None of us ever really understood why she even had a bed," Sticks laughed.

"Yesss," Rouge cheered, running back into the bedroom and flopping down onto the queen-sized bed there. "I like it here."

The front door banged open, scaring the two women into standing positions.

"So should I call the cops now, or just beat the crap out-" started a familiar, angry red echidna. He stopped short when he saw the badger. "Holy Mobius, Sticks, is that you?"

"Knuckles!" Sticks cheered, launching herself at him and koala-hugging him. He happily obliged and squeezed back.

"Wow, it's been forever since I've seen you! Look at you, kid, you're all grown up now!" Knuckles exclaimed, putting her down and mussing her hair.

"And you look pretty much the same," Sticks laughed. "God, I've missed you!"

"Who's your friend?" Knuckles asked, suddenly noticing the sultry-looking bat watching them.

"This is Rouge, mine and Amy's partner," Sticks replied, leading Knuckles over to where Rouge was standing.

"Hi," Rouge said suddenly, her cheeks turning slightly pink under her fur as she shook Knuckles' hand. Sticks was abashed. Was Rouge actually _blushing_?

"Hello," Knuckles grinned. "I had no idea Sticks had such a beautiful partner."

"Are you guys talking about me?" a voice came from the doorway, and the three looked back to see Amy standing there with her bag in hand.

"Oh my God, Amy!" Knuckles yelled, running towards her and picking her up like she weighed nothing. "I didn't know you were here! What are you doing here? Did you see Sonic y-"

"Calm down," Amy laughed. "I'm here on assignment. We'll be staying around town for a while. And yeah, I missed you too, buddy."

"Damn, Amy, you look so different," he noted, looking her up and down. Gone was the young girl skipping around town looking for trouble, and in her place stood a fierce-looking woman with battle scars and a lot more maturity. "You do too, Sticks. I can't believe you guys are here!"

"Me either," giggled Sticks. "Hey, why don't you and I take Rouge down and show her the beach while Amy gets settled in?"

"I'd really love that," Rouge smiled kindly.

"Sounds like a plan, then," Knuckles grinned back, leading the two women out of the hut.

Amy sat down in the hammock and sighed. "Blaze, you can come out now."

There was quiet at first, then a shuffling sound, and a cat peeked out from beneath one of the bookcases. "How did you know I was here?"

"Because I know you way too well," Amy laughed, walking over to the cat and embracing her. "Of course you'd want someplace quiet. Where else would you go?"

"I'm sorry to have broken into your home," Blaze murmured into Amy's shoulder. "I just needed somewhere to go that Silver wouldn't know about. He's a good kid. I just don't want him in any danger."

Amy pulled back and looked the familiar-looking woman up and down. Since Amy had last seen her, she had lost at least ten pounds. Her lavender fur was even more pale than before, almost light pink now, and she no longer wore her usual uniform, opting instead for a purple and pink striped tank top, a pair of white leggings, purple tennis shoes, and her usual white gloves to hide the flames that tended to dance along her palms. Her purple ponytail was the same length as it had always been, but the real change was in her eyes. Normally a golden color, they were now darkened to a light brown. Her tail, usually swishing mischievously, now just hung from her body, unmoving and lifeless.

"How bad is it?" Amy whispered.

"It's bad," Blaze sighed, sitting down next to Amy on the hammock. "I've been able to feel it for months. In the beginning it was just mild discomfort a few times a week, but now the pain is just… unbearable."

"What did Silver say?" Amy asked.

"He got worried," the cat replied, looking sadly down at her feet. "He could tell it was taking a toll on me, and he started talking about going adventuring to find something to help me. That's when I left. I didn't want him hurting himself just to save me. He doesn't know I'm here."

"So are you two finally together then, or-"

"No," Blaze shook her head emphatically. "I mean, there was a time- for a while, I thought… but, no. He's just a kid. And nobody wants to be stuck with something that has an expiration date on it."

"Oh, Blaze," Amy sighed, putting her head on the cat's shoulder. "It's going to be okay. We'll figure it out."

"Thank you," Blaze demurred. "Why don't you go catch up with everyone else? If it's okay with you, I'm going to stay here for a while. I'm not feeling well."

"Of course it's okay," she replied, squeezing her friend's hand. "I actually have to run into town and get a few things that I forgot to bring with me. Do you need anything?"

"Nothing, thank you," Blaze whispered, curling up on the windowsill and wincing in pain. "I'm okay."

"All right," Amy responded. She pushed out the front door and ran directly into a familiar blue hedgehog.

"Oh my God, I'm so-" he began, stopping when he looked up to see who he had run into.

"Crap," Amy breathed, freezing in her tracks.

"Amy?" Sonic whispered.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Hi," Amy replied uneasily, trying not to look at him.

"What are you- I mean, you look- how did you-" Sonic stuttered, the color drained from his face.

"Um, GUN placed me here on assignment. I have to stay around until we finish, but I'll try to make myself scarce," Amy explained. "We don't have to see each other."

"Why wouldn't I-"

"I have to go, actually," she shook her head, backing up in the direction of the dirt path towards town. "Have to go buy a toothbrush, I forgot to bring one." With that, she spun quickly and took off. Sonic stared after her, sitting down slowly on her front porch steps.

The way she looked now- _wow._ She was still the old Amy, but she had grown up now, taller and more sure of herself than ever before. Her hair had grown out slightly. She certainly looked intimidating, a force to be reckoned with, but all Sonic could think of was _she's back, she's really back_.

He had been so stupid to ever let her go in the first place.

Amy didn't cry.

The last time she had cried was when that laser had sliced through her leg, and that was only because she was ninety-nine percent sure she was going to die. She'd held out until they got to the operating room, and then one of the nurses had leaned down to her and whispered "It's okay to be scared, love," and Amy had burst into loud, embarrassing tears in the middle of the operating theatre.

She didn't cry now, either, but she could feel her cheeks heating up and her breath coming faster, a sure sign that she was upset.

She finally approached the end of the path, where there were one or two stores betraying the fact that the town wasn't completely empty. She ducked into the nearest convenience store, where a kindly old duck greeted her behind the counter. She nodded politely and took a basket.

The toothbrush was first, that was necessary. Then she got a couple of pieces of fruit, for tomorrow's breakfast, and an extra pack of hairbands to keep her hair out of her face while she was training. She had given her last one to Sticks yesterday.

The duck at the front counter checked her out, and she handed him a few dollar bills to pay for her purchases.

Blaze didn't cry.

But Mobius, her entire body hurt. She could actually _feel_ Iblis pushing at the boundaries of her very being.

She rolled over slightly on the windowsill, letting out a slight whimper of pain. Her vision darkened slightly and she thought she might lose consciousness like last time, but after a few minutes the pain began to ebb and subside. She could have cried with relief, feeling her body finally relax a bit.

"You're tough to find," she heard a voice from the ceiling say.

She startled and went to launch herself under the couch, but she overestimated the strength she currently had and went down after two steps.

"Crap," Silver hissed, no longer using his telekinesis to float near the rafters, but dropping down quickly and pulling Blaze up with an arm around her slight waist. "I didn't mean for you to kill yourself, geez."

"You shouldn't be here," Blaze gasped, leaning on her best friend with all of her weight.

"Oh, great, because I have a bowling tournament back home tonight…" Silver replied sarcastically. "Come on, Blaze."

"You shouldn't have come," she whispered as Silver gently set her down on the couch. Her body was too exhausted to protest. "There's nothing you can do for me, anyway."

"GUN begs to differ," Silver began, knowing she wasn't going to react well to what he said next. "And… as their newest recruit… so do I."

Blaze looked at him with horror written across her face. "You didn't…"

"I got sick of being useless," Silver shrugged.

"Silver, you can't," she begged, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "You're just a-"

"Just a kid? Honestly, Blaze, you have to stop saying that," Silver chuckled, sitting down beside her and taking her hand. "I'm 21 years old."

"I won't let you," Blaze continued tearfully. "It's dangerous, you could get hurt-"

"They trained me-"

"You have no idea what you're up against-"

"I have a bunch of people helping me-"

"I can't lose you!" Blaze yelled, her tears finally spilling over. She buried her face in her hands and her entire thin frame shook with her sobs.

Silver was taken aback. "W-what are you talking about?"

Blaze looked up, her face a mess of tears. "I've lost so many people in my life, Silver. And… eventually… I've moved on from all of those deaths. But you… you are the one I can never lose."

Silver put his arms around her without hesitation and held her tightly. "Blaze, you couldn't lose me if you tried. I love you too much to ever leave you."

"You love me?" she asked incredulously, looking up into his eyes.

He chuckled. "More than I care to admit sometimes."

"Promise you'll come back," Blaze whispered. "Always. You have to promise me."

Silver quickly pressed his lips against hers, feeling her melt beneath him, before responding. "I promise you that I will always come back to you. No matter what."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shadow was hot.

Then again, he was always hot on Boom Beach. Having black fur wasn't exactly an advantage in this case.

But, nevertheless, he continued on down the path to the beach where Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles usually hung out. No assignment today meant that he had the day off, and even though he would never admit it in a million years, he wanted to hang out with his friends.

Lo and behold, halfway there, he spotted Sonic sitting on the front porch of Amy's old place, staring at the dirt like it was the most interesting thing since Chaos Emeralds.

"Finally lost your mind, faker?" he greeted.

Sonic looked up at him, his eyes slightly unfocused, like he had seen a ghost. "Geez, what happened to you?"

"I…did you…I think Amy's back," Sonic stuttered, still staring off into the distance.

"Oh, Rose finally came back? Good for her," Shadow answered. "Must be weird for you."

"I don't-" Sonic started, but stopped and shook his head as if to clear it. "Yeah. I guess so."

"I'll have to go find her," Shadow spoke thoughtfully. "Been a long time since I've seen her."

"That's for sure," Sonic muttered, still staring off into space.

"She still mad?"

"I don't know," the blue hedgehog replied, sighing. "I wouldn't really blame her if she was. We never talked about what happened. She saw me, told me she'd try to stay out of my way, then practically sprinted as far away as she could get."

"So that's a yes," Shadow snorted, finding his friend's predicament somewhat funny. Sonic glared up at him.

"You know, instead of screwing around, you could actually try to help me," he demanded.

"Where's the fun in that?" Shadow retorted, starting back down the path. "You're an adult. Fix your own problems, faker. Oh, and have Rose come find me if you see her. I think she and I have some catching up to do."

Sonic growled in anger and picked up a palm-sized stone, chucking it at light speed in the direction of the darker hedgehog. He heard an impact, but Shadow just chuckled and whipped it right back at him before disappearing.

He made his way down to the beach, spotting Knuckles with a familiar looking brown badger and someone else he'd never seen before.

"Christ almi- is everyone weird and stupid today?" Shadow grumbled.

"Shadow!" Knuckles called, grinning and waving him over. Shadow begrudgingly obliged. "You remember Sticks, and this is her partner, Rouge. Rouge, Sticks, this is Shadow the hedgehog. Member of GUN, general badass, and perpetually grumpy."

"Am not," Shadow argued, scowling. "Hmph. Nice to see you again Sticks. Hello, Rouge."

"Amy said we might run into you," Rouge smiled, her dark eyes sparkling mischievously. "How come I never see you around the agency?"

"Don't like to visit too often," Shadow shrugged. "People get on my nerves, so I do outside work for them."

"We're actually here on assignment," Sticks explained, hugging Shadow, who startled and tried to squirm away. "Aw, come on, stop fighting it, Shadow! You know you missed me."

"I could literally kill you with one finger," Shadow warned her, his voice muffled in her shoulder.

"I'm absolutely terrified," Sticks quipped, ruffling his quills. He finally shoved her off, shaking himself out and glaring at her. "Anyway, GUN sent us over here to find the last three Chaos Emeralds, 'cause he says something's going on with-"

"Iblis, I know," Shadow interrupted. "That's been my assignment the past few years. Found four, then they reassigned me to Blaze."

"What do you mean, they 'assigned you to Blaze?'" Sticks questioned.

Shadow looked at her like she was the dumbest person this side of town. "If Iblis is stirring, and Iblis is sealed inside Blaze…"

"Right," Sticks lamented. "Sorry."

"I've been staying around Blaze the past two years or so, just in case. If Iblis is released, they want someone close by to call it in and be on it immediately."

"Sounds dangerous," Rouge remarked with a smirk.

"I'm immortal," Shadow retorted with a small amount of pride in his voice. "Can't kill something that can't be killed."

"Fair enough."

"Sonic's lost it," Shadow commented, sitting down on the beach a good twelve inches away from everyone else. "Anyone else notice that?"

"What's wrong with him?" asked Knuckles.

"Rose is back, apparently. You should've seen the look on his face," Shadow laughed.

"Oh, crap, they ran into each other?" Sticks inquired, getting up quickly. "I gotta go find her."

"I'll come, too" Rouge volunteered. The two girls headed off in the direction of the town.

"Way to go, Shadow," Knuckles grumbled. "Can't even be here two minutes without chasing everyone off."

"It's one of my many talents," Shadow sighed, leaning back into the warm afternoon sun. "Not my fault you can't get a woman to stick around."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"I told you, it doesn't matter," Amy rebuked her two friends, unpacking her suitcase. "He saw me. Our conversation laster two seconds, then I left. End of story."

"Shadow said he's losing his mind," Sticks giggled. "Poor guy doesn't even know what hit him."

"It sounds like he deserves it," Rouge sniffed. "What a piece of-"

"Can we just drop it, please?" Amy pleaded. "We knew I'd see him. He lives here. I'll avoid him as much as I can."

"That, uh, might prove difficult," Rouge snickered, pointing to the doorway, where a blue hedgehog had appeared, looking shy and ashamed. Amy froze.

"Do you want us to stay?" Sticks murmured, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Nah, I'm fine. Why don't you guys go on ahead to the beach? Knuckles and Tails wanted to host a bonfire to welcome us," Amy replied. "I'll be down in a minute."

"Hi, Sonic," Sticks greeted, giving an awkward wave as she passed him. Rouge glared daggers at him.

"Hi, Sticks," Sonic murmured, not taking his eyes off Amy. As soon as the door shut behind the girls, he started towards her, not wanting to scare her off again. "Amy? Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah," Amy replied, not unkindly. "Just trying to unpack."

"Right," Sonic answered. He sat on the edge of the couch cautiously. "Must be weird, moving back into your old place."

"A bit," she shrugged. "I missed it."

"Yeah."

She sighed, then turned to face him. "What are you doing here, Sonic?"

He looked slightly taken aback. "I… I guess I wanted to apologize. For-"

"I know what for," she interrupted firmly. "It was a long time ago. Just forget about it."

"I just…" he stammered. "Well, you still seem mad at me."

"Mad? No," Amy snorted. "I'm not mad anymore. That went away about three years after I left. Now? I've finally grown up enough to know that if I let you anywhere near me, I'm going to get hurt again. I'm here to do a job, Sonic, and that's the only thing I intend to do while I'm here. I spent the past six years being trained to look out for myself, so you bet your ass that's exactly what I'm going to do."

She finished speaking, sighed, and put down the clothes she was holding. "You never wanted me around. I get that now, and it's okay. You can't help how you felt back then. But I'm telling you now that I'm going to be smart enough to know who's good for me to be around and who isn't."

Sonic stared at her, incredulous.

"I have to go-" Amy started, but he interrupted her.

"You're right."

"I know I am."

"I was cruel to you back then, when we were younger," Sonic exhaled. "For a while, when I wasn't paying attention to how it affected you, I thought it was fun."

"Yeah, real fun," Amy sighed. "I'm supposed to meet-"

"I know you have to go," he butted in again. "But please, just listen to this first. I know I was horrible to you, and you have no idea how badly I feel about it. And if there was anything in the world I could do to fix it, I would. But you also need to know how different things are now," he continued, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, losing you was the most devastating thing that's ever happened to me. I realized after you left just how much I loved you, and that hasn't changed over the past six years either. I never stopped hoping you'd come home. And I can't stand the thought of you not wanting to be around me. But, if that's what you need, then you do what needs to be done."

He moved closer to her and tucked a stray lock of pink hair behind her ear. She froze, eyes wide. He smiled at her. "I'm not going anywhere, Amy Rose. And if there's one thing you can't make me do, it's fall out of love with you."

She backed up. "No, but I can tell you to get the hell out of my house."

"Fair enough," he conceded, backing away. "Have a good time at the bonfire."

He left, closing the door softly, and Amy fell onto her butt, breathing heavily. Was she frightened? Aroused? Sad? Sort of a mix of all three, she thought begrudgingly. He'd had no right to come barging in here and say those things to her. She'd literally told him she wanted nothing to do with him, and what was his response?

Exactly.

What a tool, she taught angrily, changing clothes into an oversized 'Goo Goo Dogs' shirt and a pair of black leggings. She slid on her sneakers, locked her door, and jogged her way down to the beach, where her friends were waiting for her.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Here," Silver prompted, wrapping a red-and-black checkered blanket around Blaze's thin shoulders. "It's getting cold."

"I'm okay," she protested, but gratefully clutched the blanket at her front and blushed as he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

"Wait, are you-" Knuckles started excitedly, stopping when Silver glared at him. "Uh, I mean, sorry it's cold, Blaze!"

"Do you control the weather?" she winked at him. "It's okay, Knuckles. I'm just fine."

"Hi, guys," Amy grinned, waving and skipping down to where everyone was. She sat in between Rouge and Sticks.

"So, how'd it-" Sticks began.

"Not talking about it," Amy exhaled. "Somebody please tell me they brought things for smores?"

"That'd be me," a grumpy voice said, and Amy turned to see Shadow standing there, nearly invisible in the darkness, holding up a grocery bag.

"Oh my God, Shadow!" Amy cried, standing up and grabbing him into a hug, which he begrudgingly returned.

"Hey, how come it's okay when she hugs you?" Sticks complained.

"When you look like Rose, you can hug me all you want," Shadow snickered. Amy pushed him back and swatted his shoulder good-naturedly.

"Wow, I can't believe I've even missed that," she joked. "And Silver, you're here too! Blaze told me-"

"Yeah, I tracked her down," he grinned. "Couldn't be without her for too long, you know. And it looks like we're going to be partners now, Rose. GUN's assigned me to your mission."

"Yesss!" Sticks exclaimed, punching the air. "More partners! More friends!"

"More idiots," Shadow muttered, earning a laugh from Rouge and Blaze.

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he's as stubborn as you are, Amy," Blaze smiled. Silver plopped down next to her and she leaned back against him automatically as he put an arm around her. "So just try not to let him kill you guys, okay?"

Amy grinned at her friends and leaned back on her elbows, letting the warmth of the fire wash over her entire body. "I knew you two were going to get together eventually."

Both Blaze and Silver blushed furiously.

"Okay, if someone doesn't break out the marshmallows, there's gonna be blood," Tails warned, grinning. Shadow tossed the grocery bag at him, but he didn't see it in time and it collided directly with his face, knocking him on his back into the sand. "Ow!"

"Shadow, quit throwing things at people," Sticks sighed, picking up the grocery bag and holding out her hand to Tails. "You all right?"

"Fine," he smiled kindly. "Thanks, Sticks."

Knuckles made a gagging noise. "Get a room, you two. Can we please eat?"

Sticks, looking quite confused, shook her head and passed around the stores supplies while Tails plotted Knuckles' death.

An hour later, everyone was full of smores and laying down around the fire.

"I guess we have to do actual work tomorrow," Rouge sighed. She noted, with a bit of satisfaction, that Knuckles was laying awfully close to her. Every once in a while, they'd brush hands, and she'd feel sparks go off in her stomach. "Where are we starting?"

"Well, I have one of them," Knuckles replied. "Tails found it and gave it to me to guard."

"O'Malley emailed us coordinates for the other two," Amy chimed in. "It's going to be tough. They're in difficult spots, and I have a feeling actually getting our hands on them isn't going to be a cakewalk."

"I love cake," Silver sighed, earning a laugh from the rest of the group.

"I have a few things for you guys before you leave tomorrow," Tails reminded them. "Just some stuff I've been working on that might make your job a little bit easier."

"You're the best," Amy smiled gratefully. Sticks winked at him and he felt his heart rate increase.

"N-no problem," he stammered.

"I should get back," Blaze said suddenly, standing up, wobbly.

"Not by yourself, you aren't," Silver argued, moving quickly and picking her up bridal-style. He was shocked at how little she weighed now.

"Silver, I'm perfectly capable of-"

"You aren't capable of anything right now except for maybe making some toast," Silver noted, and Blaze, feeling the pain of Iblis begin to rise inside of her, didn't protest. "We'll see you tomorrow, guys. Amy, is it okay if we take the floor in your living room?"

"Of course," Amy waved. "We'll be back in a little while."

Silver set off down the dirt path back towards Amy's place. "How bad?"

Blaze felt a rush of affection; he already knew. He didn't even have to ask what was going on. "Not so much yet, but it will be. Just hurry please."

Silver nodded and started jogging. Within a few minutes, they were back at Amy's house, and he set her down on the couch. Blaze could feel a tight fist of pain squeezing her insides, and she gasped at the severity of it.

"I've got you," Silver assured her firmly, laying down next to her and pulling her to him tightly. "You're going to be okay."

Blaze shut her eyes against the searing pain, the only thing easing it being the fact that she finally had someone to protect her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Did you hear that?" Sticks questioned, sitting up suddenly.

"No, what?" Amy replied.

"I didn't hear anything," Rouge exhaled. "Damn, and I was just about to fall asleep."

"I definitely heard something," Sticks pressed. "From the far end of the beach. I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you," Tails offered. "Buddy system, right?"

"Right," Sticks grinned.

"Call us if you need us," Knuckles called after them as they started to walk away. Soon, they turned past a cave and couldn't see their friends anymore.

"What'd you hear?" Tails asked, straining his ears to listen for anything around them. All he could hear were nighttime crickets and the ocean.

"I didn't," Sticks smiled mischievously.

"Wait, then- why did we come over here?"

"Because I noticed you lookin' at me all funny during the bonfire," Sticks smirked. "Anything you want to say about that?"

Tails froze, knowing he'd been caught. "Well… I wasn't… I mean, I guess I…"

"You know, it's awfully fun to make you nervous," she laughed.

Tails, in spite of himself, grinned.

Sticks took a step in his direction, so that they were only a few inches from each other now. "So, are you going to tell me?"

Tails felt his pulse go crazy. "I guess… maybe… it's possible I… might have a crush on you…" he stuttered, looking at her eyes. They were the most gorgeous shade of brown.

"No kidding? Tails, the ever-logical genius, has a crush?" she smirked. Tails made the observation that if he leaned in just a few inches, he could close the gap between them. "Strange. Have you done much research on it?"

"Not really," he murmured quietly. "Sometimes research doesn't make things any clearer."

"Nothing? Made any hypotheses?"

"One," he answered, feeling a bit brave.

"And?"

"If I kiss you," he began, then finally leaned in and kissed her. She responded immediately, twining her arms around his neck. He pulled back slowly. "…it'll make my crush that much worse."

"Oh, you're in for it now," Sticks giggled, not letting go of him.

"I'm counting on it," Tails agreed. "Oh!"

The two lost their balance, not paying attention, and fell to the sand. Sticks landed on top of him, bracing herself with her hands on his chest, and he blushed at the position they were in. She took notice and gazed at him with amusement written all over her face. "Seriously, it's too easy to make you blush."

"So not funny," he exhaled.

"I didn't say it was," she grinned, leaning down and kissing him again.

"What'd you guys find?" Amy asked as the badger and kitsune made their way back.

Sticks shrugged. "Nothing interesting. Guess I'm hearing things." Sticks never blushed, but she was having a hard time not doing exactly that as the memory of herself pressed against the fox next to her floated around in her mind. She'd never felt that sort of response from her body to a kiss before. Her heart rate sped up, and she could feel her palms sweating.

 _…she could feel his soft fur against hers as she gently teased his lips open with her tongue, feeling his respond accordingly. He entwined his fingers in her long brown hair, and she moved hers slowly along his toned chest. He groaned slightly into the kiss, making her smile. Suddenly, he broke the kiss and pushed her off gently._

 _"What's wrong?"_

 _"W-we should probably head back," he replied nervously._

 _"But why- oh," Sticks suddenly realized, slightly embarrassed at his predicament but also quite amused. "Come on, then." She stood and offered him both her hands, pulling him up as well. "You know, you shouldn't be embarrassed."_

 _"Look who you're talking to," he grumbled, making her laugh as the two headed back in the direction of their friends._

"Well, I'm exhausted," Shadow announced, "and you people are boring. I'm out of here."

"You sure? Everyone else is spending the night in our place. You're welcome too, since you have to come with us tomorrow," Amy offered. Shadow considered.

"Fine," he answered grumpily. "If I have to."

"Shadow, don't be so grumpy," Knuckles sighed, sitting up and looking at his friend. "Are you always like this?"

"You bet your ass," he muttered, making Rouge, Sticks, and Tails laugh.

"Come on," Amy chuckled, pulling him up. "Knuckles, Tails, you guys heading out, too?"

"Yeah, I think so," Tails answered. "Thanks for the party, Knuckles."

"Anytime," Knuckles bowed, "as I am the undisputed king of the party."

"I think I disagree," Sticks murmured, just loud enough for Tails to hear, making him blush furiously.

"GOODNIGHT EVERYONE," he yelled, taking off towards the workshop.

"What's up with him?" Rouge asked Sticks.

"No clue," she shrugged, grinning secretly.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Silver put a finger to his lips as the girls and Shadow filed in. "Don't wake her up, she just fell asleep," he whispered, motioning to the sleeping cat snuggled into him.

Amy nodded. "I'll be sleeping in the back room where the hammock is, if anyone needs me," she whispered back. Rouge and Sticks nodded. "Shadow, you take the couch, and Rouge and Sticks can share my bed. Silver, blankets are in the closet behind you if you need them."

Silver bowed his head gratefully. Everyone headed to their respective sleeping locations, except for Shadow, who hung back in the living room.

"I can sleep elsewhere, if necessary," he offered.

"No need," Silver shook his head. He carefully stood, picking Blaze up, bridal-style. She didn't even stir. "We'll sleep in the dining room."

"We?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning.

"You're dumber than I thought if you really think I'm going anywhere when she's like this," Silver hissed. Shadow shrugged, and the silver hedgehog disappeared back into the dining room.

And now he was alone. That was usually the way Shadow preferred things, but not tonight. Tonight, he felt… lonely.

"Finally," Amy exhaled, laying down for the first time in what seemed like forever. She'd changed into her usual pajamas, a purple cropped tank and a pair of black-and-white men's boxers (hey, they were cheaper than women's). Her hair was pulled back into its usual messy ponytail, and she angrily tried to brush the loose strands out of her face, only to have them flop back. She sighed. Taming her hair was never easy.

So instead, she lay back in the hammock, breathing out and closing her eyes. She was exhausted. She hadn't gotten any sleep since-

"You know, you really oughta lock your windows," a voice said. Amy's eyes immediately shot open, and quicker than the intruder could see, took her pocket knife out and crouched down into a fighting stance.

"Back off," she warned, slashing her knife in an arc in front of her.

"Whoa! Amy, geez, it's me," the intruder protested, quickly flicking on the light switch that was next to the window. "You sleep with a knife?"

"Sonic, you moron, you scared me," Amy snapped, sheathing her knife. "And yes, of course I sleep with a knife. You don't?"

"We don't exactly have a raging crime ring down here," Sonic commented.

She sighed with annoyance. "What are you doing here? I'm trying to sleep, in case you couldn't tell."

"Since when did you start going to bed early? When you lived here, I remember you used to stay up until three. And I remember, because I would come over and we'd talk around midnight because you couldn't sleep."

"Probably when I realized that not sleeping could get me killed," she retorted. "And that was six years ago, Sonic."

"So?"

"So, just because you want to sit around and act like nothing's changed, doesn't mean it hasn't!" she countered.

"Geez, no need to get testy." He held his hands up in protest. "What did I do?"

"Besides the obvious?" she snorted. "You come in here trying to apologize to me, which was bad enough in itself, because I had almost forgotten all about the shit you did to me. Then you come in here," she realized her voice was getting too loud and lowered it so as not to wake everyone else, "You come in here with all this crap about how you're still in love with me and you're sorry and whatever, so now I have to deal with that in addition to doing what I'm assigned to do. So that's what you did," she finished, shoving him aside and sitting back down in the hammock.

"Don't shove me."

"I'll do whatever the hell I want," Amy snapped, shoving him again.

"You think I'm afraid to push a girl?" Sonic taunted, pushing back. "And you can avoid me all you want, but it's not going to change anything."

He didn't even see her coming. She flew at him, landing a kick to the back of his knees and causing him to fall over before skidding to a stop, in a fighting stance, grinning cockily at him.

"Maybe not, but I can beat the crap out of you until you leave me alone," she sniffed.

Sonic rose slowly. "Not bad, Rose. They've been training you. But," he started, crouching into a fighting stance of his own. "I'm still the fastest thing around here."

With that, an epic fighting match ensued. Sonic launched himself at her, at light speed, something that normally would have knocked her through the wall, but she dodged it easily with a side flip before throwing a spinning roundhouse toward him. He saw it coming, though, and, grabbing her right foot, used her momentum to swing her around and throw her. She hit the wall and didn't get up, wincing and rubbing her head.

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry Amy! I didn't mean to-" Sonic started towards her and bent down next to her only to receive a vicious punch to the stomach that sent him skidding back across the bedroom.

"Oh, but I did," she retorted, grinning. "Sometimes it's good to be underestimated."

"Ugh…" he groaned, rising. "Believe me, Amy, if there's one thing I never did, it was underestimate you.

Punches were exchanged, kicks were thrown, and within minutes, both of them were breathing heavily and bleeding from at least one place on their body. Finally, Amy saw a weak spot in Sonic's fighting pattern, a split second where he wasn't paying attention to his left flank, managed to get behind him, and shoved him up against the wall by his shoulders.

"I don't think you've ever beaten me in a fight before," he conceded, wincing.

"Won't be the last time, pal," Amy smirked. Sonic couldn't help but think about how beautiful she looked right then, hair a mess, a cut on her chin, anger in her eyes. Without even considering the consequences, he broke away from her grip, leaned in, and kissed her fiercely.

She froze, her lips pressed up against his. It was like she was right back in the water with him, that first time, the exact same warm feeling spreading through her body. Her movements betrayed her, jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist as he parted her lips with his tongue. Before, she had been content to let him have the upper hand, but not this time. She broke the kiss, shoved him backwards so that he fell on his butt, and dropped down to her knees, straddling his legs and putting her face as close to his as she could without kissing him.

"You think coming in here and making out with me is going to fix everything?" she murmured, slightly annoyed at the reaction he was getting out of her.

"N-no," he stammered, surprised at her sudden rush of dominance. "But… it's fun."

"You want fun, go to an arcade," she sneered, moving to get up, but he caught her wrist tightly.

"Wrong kind of fun. And you aren't going anywhere," he growled, pulling her back down and capturing her lips again with his own, his hands roaming on her lower back and eventually her butt. She inhaled, surprised, but quickly resumed her attack on him. He eventually moved from her lips, kissing all along her jawline and eventually making his way to the spot where both halves of her collarbone met in the middle, feeling some satisfaction when he heard her sigh with delight.

She suddenly stopped, pushing up off of him and climbing back into her hammock. "Get out of my house. And don't think this changes things between us."

"You shouldn't be so afraid of change, Amy," Sonic grinned, getting up off the floor and dusting his rear end off. Quick as a flash of lightning, he dashed out the window and back into the woods.

Amy could feel her hands trembling from the events that had transpired, and there was no way she was going to be able to sleep now. "Stupid hedgehog," she muttered, getting up and going to the shelf to find a book to read. "Ruins everything for me."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Think we should go in there?" Sticks asked, looking, amusedly, at the wall that separated the main bedroom and the back room, where distinct crashing noises could be heard.

"Eh. Not the most concerning noises I've heard coming from Amy's room," Rouge replied, laying on her right side so that she could look out the window as she fell asleep. "So how much can you tell me about your red echidna friend?"

"Knuckles?" Sticks asked incredulously, propping herself up on her pillows. "I knew you'd fall for him!"

"I didn't say I was 'falling' for anyone," Rouge quipped disinterestedly. "He's an attractive guy. Sue me."

"Mhmm," Sticks giggled. "Well, back when I left, he wasn't the smartest guy around, but he seems to have gotten a little better in that area since then."

"Fine by me," Rouge smirked. "I like 'em dumb."

"He's a big player, but I don't think he's ever actually had a relationship," Sticks continued. "And he's obviously tough, but he's sweet when he needs to be."

Rouge rolled over. "Careful. Tails will get jealous."

"How'd you know?" Sticks cried, pounding a fist into the mattress.

"Your friends may be blind, but I'm not," she giggled. "You and Tails went off he looked a bit, uh, uncomfortable when you came back."

"If you tease him about that, I'll punch you," the badger warned. "You should've seen how embarrassed he was."

"Don't see why," Rouge shrugged. "Like it doesn't happen to every guy."

"I don't think Tails is exactly experienced in that department," Sticks chuckled. "Now go to bed and stop bothering me."

"Right," Rouge laughed, flipping back over. She was out in seconds, exhausted from all the excitement the day had held.

Sticks' eyes were beginning to feel heavy, and she was just drifting into a pleasant dream-

*CRASH*

Both girls shot up in bed. "What the hell was that?" Sticks asked.

"Didn't come from Amy's room," Rouge determined. "I'll go check it out."

She crept into the main room, Sticks behind her, where they ran into Amy, who was now sporting a cut on her chin and several bruises.

"Geez, what happened to you?" Sticks questioned.

"No time for that," Amy shook her head. "It came from the dining room."

The three girls ran in to see Blaze convulsing with Silver at her side. Her eyes were squeezed shut and all of her muscles were locked up.

"It's a seizure, I think," Silver's voice cracked slightly. He looked like he was desperately trying to hold back tears. "Guys, this thing… it's going to kill her."

"Not tonight," Amy ground out, kneeling next to the cat and quickly rolling her on her right side. "Recovery position. If she doesn't come out of it in the next minute, then you should be worried."

"Little late for that," he muttered. Shadow appeared silently next to him. Sticks and Rouge stood back, hesitantly, knowing Amy had control of the situation.

"It's progressing faster now," Shadow murmured. "We need to find those last two Chaos Emeralds…"

"…fast," Amy finished. "You're right, Shadow. This can't wait. We gotta go now."

"Normally I would disagree, because you know how much I love to sleep, but…" Rouge trailed off, watching Blaze suffer. "I'm in. I'll grab our stuff."

Amy nodded her assent. "My backpack's ready to go, it's by the door. You guys get whatever you need."

Blaze's convulsing suddenly came to a stop, and she went completely limp. Silver sighed in relief.

"She's going to be fine," the pink hedgehog pointed out. "And normally, I would ask you to come with us, especially because you're one of our partners now, but I don't like the idea of leaving Blaze alone."

"Me either," Silver shook his head, his silvery quills making a rustling noise, "but I'm going with you. Knuckles and Tails will watch Blaze for me. I trust them."

Amy looked at him with some sympathy. "Okay. Whatever you think is best. You can use my phone to call them, they're in there somewhere."

Silver nodded gratefully and began calling. Amy stood and started towards the front door, where Shadow stood.

"You sure you want to do this tonight, Rose?" he asked huskily.

Amy unsheathed her knife and gripped it tightly, slinging her backpack over her left shoulder just as Rouge, Sticks, and Silver appeared behind her. "Damn straight."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Is Blaze okay?" Tails asked, grabbing his medkit before taking off, his twin kitsune tails spinning rapidly over his head.

"Silver didn't say," Knuckles responded over the communicator watch. "He just said the team had to leave and he trusted us to watch her."

"Well, if we can't go with them," Tails sighed. Sometimes he missed all the action that came with a good fight.

The two arrived at Amy's old place at exactly the same time. Silver, Shadow, Rouge, Sticks, and Amy were waiting on the porch, gear packed up. Amy had her favorite knife clutched tightly in her right hand.

"How's she doing?" Tails asked breathlessly.

"She was fine when we came out here," Amy replied. "She's in the dining room resting, now. The seizure stopped about five minutes ago, so be careful. She might be post-ictal."

"Gotcha," Tails nodded. "And, uh, guys?" he asked, motioning to everyone but staring directly at Sticks. "Be careful, okay?"

"We will," Shadow huffed. "Geez, it's not like we're off to be executed. This'll be a piece of cake."

"Dunno about that," Sticks protested. "Trust me, I've gone and explored the first location, and it ain't pretty."

"Well, we don't have much of a choice," Amy stated firmly. "At the rate Blaze is going, if we don't find these last two emeralds by tomorrow evening…"

The unsaid hung in the air like a ghost.

"We'll find them," Silver asserted. "Blaze isn't going anywhere."

"Okay, I'm sorry to be insensitive, but what exactly DOES happen if we don't find the emeralds in time?" Rouge questioned. Silver lowered his head.

"Well… Blaze has Iblis sealed inside of her. So if Iblis gets strong enough, it'll literally rip her apart as it escapes her. And then… well, then it's the end of the world. And not just our dimension. EVERY dimension."

Amy's mouth was set in a firm line. "And, no matter what, Iblis is going to need a new host."

Everyone gaped at her.

"What?" Shadow snarled.

"Blaze can't continue keeping Iblis inside her, especially not in her condition," Amy reasoned. She turned to Sticks and Rouge. "Come on. Why do you think O'Malley had me putting in all those extra training hours recently?"

"He was getting you ready," Sticks whispered.

Amy nodded. "He came to me with the proposition about a year ago. At first, I said no, but when I realized how bad the situation had gotten, well, I had to."

"That's ridiculous," Silver protested.

"I'll do it," Shadow retorted. "I'm immortal. It's not like it can kill me or anything."

Amy shook her head. "It has to be me. They trained me right. I _know_ I can keep it contained, at least for a while."

"Why does it have to be you, though?" Rouge broke in. "I mean, maybe Shadow is onto something. If Iblis can't kill him, maybe it can't escape from him, either.

"Which is exactly the point," Amy replied. "Iblis has to, in a way, agree to be sealed inside someone. If it feels threatened, it'll reject the host. It's not going to take to someone who it can never escape from."

"Rose," Shadow muttered, shaking his head with frustration. "I'm all for saving the world and everything, but you know you're signing your death warrant, right?"

She stood strong. "Maybe I am. But who says the next time Iblis stirs, in forty years, after I've been married and gone about my life, that there won't be a new solution?" She grinned at Tails. "Maybe that could be your next project."

Tails rushed over to her and grabbed her up into a hug, tears in his eyes. "Amy, are you sure about this?" he murmured.

She smiled and hugged him back. "I'm sure, Tails. I've been ready for this for a long time."

Knuckles, who normally would have been bawling, was trying to hold back his tears for Rouge's sake, but his voice cracked as soon as he spoke. "We'll come up with something, Amy. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried," she responded, putting her arms around Rouge and Sticks next. Both of them were completely shell-shocked. Silver came up to her next, incredulous, throwing his arms around her.

"Thank you," he whispered, so only she could hear. She nodded, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him back.

"You take care of her," she demanded, speaking of Blaze. "Swear?"

"I swear," he affirmed, making an X motion over his heart.

"And no matter what, DO NOT tell Sonic. Not until I've sealed Iblis," Amy warned. "He'll try to do it himself, and who knows how that'll end up."

Begrudgingly, everyone promised.

"Okay, enough emotions," Amy laughed. "Come on, we've got emeralds to find. And Tails, you've got a patient!"

"On it!" Tails sniffed, wiping the last of his tears away, giving Sticks a meaningful look, and then dashing inside.

"Best of luck," Knuckles sighed, raising his hand in a half-hearted salute. "To all of you. And Rouge, if you come back in one piece, maybe you'll let me take you to dinner sometime."

"Maybe I will," Rouge winked, fluttering her delicate wings.

"Ugh. Relationships," Shadow gagged. "Come on, we need to hurry if we're going to have any chance at saving Blaze."


	14. Chapter 14

p class="p1"span class="s1"Chapter 14/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "How do you know about this place anyway, Sticks?" Silver panted. They'd been walking for hours, and the sky was just beginning to betray a hint of sunlight. Amy had never seen this part of the woods before./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I was exploring one day. Came across the place, thought it might make a cool new burrow," Sticks shrugged, leading the way. "Then, you know, something started throwing knives at me, so I figured maybe nah."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sounds like fun," Shadow grumbled./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Maybe not, but it definitely sounds promising," Rouge reasoned. "If there wasn't a chaos emerald in there, do you really thing there'd be knives flying?"/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fair," Shadow conceded. "I suppose that means I'll be going first."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Just because you can't die doesn't mean you can't be impaled," Amy pointed out. "We'll all go in."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Well, better gather yourselves," Sticks pointed, "because we're here."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The team looked up at the cave. It was much bigger than Amy expected, towering fifty feet over their heads. It looked fairly unremarkable, grey stone carved into the hillside, covered with decades' worth of moss, ivy, and packed mud. But there was something about it…/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow?" Sticks asked. The dark hedgehog had frozen, narrowing his gaze at the entrance of the cave./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's definitely here," he affirmed with a short nod. "Far off. But here."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Then let's get started," Amy replied, pulling her knife back out./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The rest of the crew followed suit. Silver clenched his fists, waves of blue energy radiating off of them. Sticks pulled her kali stick off her back and wielded it in front of her. Rouge pulled her crossbow from her backpack, a dangerous, lethal-looking weapon that Tails had rigged up for her the night before. And Shadow clutched the fifth chaos emerald, hanging from his neck by a circular piece of twine, ready there for him to use Chaos Control./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The five entered the cave, cautiously, but armed with the incentive that they needed to solve this puzzle class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The floor was slippery, almost wet. Handprints in black paint lined the wall, which Amy found unsettling./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow? How close is it?" she whispered. Talking at normal volume in the scary death cave seemed like a poor idea./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I don't know. A hundred feet? I definitely feel it, but we're not right on top of it," he whispered back, eyes narrowed, leading the way./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The group continued down the darkened caveway, until Silver suddenly stopped./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Do you hear th-" His eyes widened as the ground beneath his feet crumbled suddenly. Sticks grabbed Rouge and rolled both of them out of the way, Shadow was out of range, and Amy threw her body backwards, just far enough to escape being sucked into the chasm. Silver, however, wasn't so lucky./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Sticks screamed as he felt himself free-falling through the air. It took his mind about half a second to process the situation, and another half a second to remember, "Oh, yeah, I have telekinetic powers."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Concentrating hard, he managed to bring a field of blue energy around him, stopping his fall and leaving him floating in midair, just inches from the bottom of the pit, which was littered with lots of extremely sharp wooden spikes. His eyes widened with the realization of the fate he'd just barely avoided./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I-I'm okay," he called, doing his best not to sound shaken. He managed to maneuver himself out of the hole and over to the side, where he finally allowed his telekinetic energy to dissolve around him, dropping him to the floor./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Holy Mobius," Amy breathed. "No offense, Silver, but I'm glad it was you to trigger that one. You know, because you can levitate and all that."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Me too," he exhaled. He could feel his energy was drained from the effort he'd had to expend, using so much to lift his body./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "We need to move. Try not to kill yourself, kid," Shadow quipped, raising an eyebrow and earning an angry snarl from Silver before turning around. "We're close."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"* * */span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's really cold," Rouge murmured. "Anyone else notice that?"/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow nodded. "Be on guard. Something isn't right."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy narrowed her gaze, stopping suddenly. The rest of the group halted behind her. "Wait," she hissed./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" The cave floor under their feet had begun vibrating, almost imperceptibly. Shadow was shocked that she had even noticed./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" That was when everything happened at once./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" A strange, purple cloud began growing from the base of the cave. The group backed up into each other, all five of them in a circle, as the gas began to surround them. Amy felt her feet begin to tingle./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Nerve gas," Shadow ground out. "Black Doom's doing, I'd bet. Don't let it touch you!"/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy, with Rouge and Silver following close behind, leaped as far as she could over the cloud of gas. It hadn't risen very high, but it was still beginning to spread. The three of them managed to clear it, save for one of Amy's feet, which immediately fell asleep, but when they looked back, Sticks had collapsed at the center of the circle./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks!" Amy yelled, moving to run back in to save her friend, but Shadow shook his head furiously at her./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I have her," he demanded. "I'm immune to the stuff."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" He quickly sprinted back into the cloud, grabbing Sticks up like she weighed nothing, and holding her up as high as he could as he made his way out of class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "No time to rest," Amy indicated. The nerve gas was spreading out with every second. "We need to find a way to seal this off!"/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "That's where I come in," Silver offered, motioning everyone else to back up. Concentrating hard, and using every last ounce of energy he had, he willed the ceiling to crack. Then shatter./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Dark grey rock fell around them, the impact of it both blasting the cloud of nerve gas backwards and sealing them off from it. Silver collapsed from effort, his legs crumpling underneath him like noodles./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Rouge exhaled, running over. "Are you all right?"/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I'm okay," he assured her unsteadily. "Just tired. Two minutes and I can keep moving."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Amy," Shadow began, looking down at the badger. Amy came dashing over./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks, are you okay?" she asked. Sticks was blinking rapidly./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I think so," she ground out. "But I can't feel anything below the waist."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's temporary," Shadow explained. "She's in a lot of pain, but that'll stop after a while too. I can carry her."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow, are YOU okay?" Amy asked. The dark hedgehog was grimacing in pain./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fine," he nodded curtly. "I may be immune to the stuff, but it still hurts like a bitch."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow," Sticks demanded, getting his attention. "You may be kind of grumpy sometimes, and you may not like squishy stuff, but thank you for saving me."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Eh. You could have saved yourself," he waved her off. "I just took all the credit."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Sticks sighed. "I'm trying to say a serious thank you here. The least you could do is accept it."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow's cheeks reddened, an extremely rare occurrence. "Fine. You're welcome. And when we get back, you owe me three hardcore training sessions."br / "Deal," she replied, grinning. "Jesus, that stuff is no joke. I think my legs are on fire."/span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I hate to interrupt the moment, but I think we have company," Rouge started, lifting a manicured finger towards the path in front of them, where a large… something had appeared./span/p  
p class="p2"span class="s1" It was tall, easily 20 feet in height, with a double-horned helmet and one red, glowing eye. It wore tattered black garments, but Amy found the scariest thing about it to be its legs. They almost looked like they were made of wood, dark, stiff, and cracked. But the way he moved… he was too graceful./span/p  
p class="p2" "I'd so hoped I wouldn't have to finish you off myself," the thing chuckled, its voice raspy and deep./p 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Shadow snarled, the fur on his back raising in a line. Amy gripped her knife tightly, ready to spring at a moment's notice.

"I was for a while, my son," the thing patronized. "But did you really think you'd get rid of me forever? I am your father, after all."

"Shadow?" Rouge whimpered.

"Black Doom," the dark hedgehog spit. "I was technically made from his DNA. I defeated him a while back, but it clearly didn't work. That _thing_ is not my father."

"Definitions don't lie, my boy," Black Doom grinned. "The nerve gas was a poor choice on my part. If I'd known you were coming along with the group, I would have come up with another method of annihilating you all."

"Fat chance," Amy glared.

"Yeah, I may not be able to stand up on my own, but I can still beat the shit out of you," Sticks growled.

Black Doom pulled a staff from behind its back. It looked like it was made entirely of shadows. "We'll see."

Shadow grasped the Chaos Emerald hanging from his neck, and quickly disappeared into a burst of blue light. He reappeared just to the left of Black Doom's head, striking out with a vicious roundhouse that would have cracked anyone else's skull. Yet somehow, Black Doom sensed it coming and smacked Shadow aside like he was a toy. The black hedgehog flew across the room, slamming into the opposite wall hard enough to leave cracks.

"Shadow," Amy gasped.

"Okay, now I'm mad," Rouge complained, narrowing her eyes and readying her crossbow. "Ready, Ames?"

"You bet your ass," Amy grinned. Brandishing her knife, she darted around to Black Doom's backside just as Rouge fired six arrows in succession. True to her mark, all six buried themselves in Black Doom's chest.

"Stupid bitch," he chuckled, but Rouge saw a slight glimpse of pain as he pulled the arrows out and threw them aside. "You really think- ergh!"

Amy had taken a running start and managed to jump all the way up to the back of his knee, shoving her knife in and using gravity to pull herself down, opening a three-foot-long slice in Black Doom's right calf. Black blood spilled out.

"You're going to pay for that," Black Doom promised. He kicked out at Amy, quicker than she could dodge, and the impact was like being hit by a truck. She felt herself sail about ten feet, then skid through the dirt on her shoulder for about twenty.

"Ow," she groaned, blood staining the ground beneath her. "You know, you're a real pain in the ass."

"Couldn't agree more," Silver taunted, speeding across the room, taking off, and using his telekinesis to flit around Black Doom's head, momentarily distracting him.

Those few seconds were all Shadow needed. He sprang at his 'father', delivering a massive blow to his jaw. Black Doom, stunned, fell backwards. Shadow jumped on top of him, punching him again and again.

"You-" he snarled, punctuating each word with another hit, "are… not… my… father!"

Black Doom threw him off, wiping blood from him nose and mouth. "And yet my DNA is alive and well within your body."

Amy came from behind, kicking him in the temple and knocking him off-balance again. "We're his family, you douche canoe!"

"You can't-" Black Doom began to roar.

"Pardon the interruption," Silver cut in, a giant rock floating above his head. "But we have somewhere else to be!" He hurled the rock directly at Black Doom's head, finally knocking him on his back for good.

Shadow approached his head, half-buried under a rock and streaming black blood.

"You can't defeat me for good, you weakling," Black Doom growled.

"Maybe not, but I can defeat you for today," Shadow retorted. He reared back, bringing both fists down on Black Doom's chest with everything he had in him, yelling like a crazy man.

Black Doom howled in anger and pain, beginning to disintegrate from that very spot, like ashes flying up out of a fire. Within a few seconds, he was gone, and all that was left of him was a pile of dust and a puddle of black blood. Shadow knelt beside it, his chest heaving from exertion.

Silver glanced over at Amy. "Douche canoe?"

She shrugged, wincing as a bolt of pain went through her shoulder "It was the first thing that came to mind." She pressed her hand to the large open wound there, feeling blood seeping through her fingers. "Is everyone okay?"

"Fine," Shadow ground out darkly.

"All good here," Rouge affirmed, fluttering a few feet above the ground, still wielding her crossbow.

"I didn't even have to help you guys," Sticks grinned. "Nice shot, Rouge."

"Thanks," the bat beamed. "Shadow? You okay?"

The dark hedgehog rose. "I think it's best you continue this journey without me."

Amy looked at him with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't have time for this," he snapped.

Silver sighed. "Cut the bullshit, Shadow. That creep isn't your father. You had nothing to do with that attack.

Rouge made her way over to him, her gaze narrowed. "You aren't going to leave us high and dry just because you feel like you're to blame for all this crap."

"I think you would run into fewer obstacles without me here," Shadow said firmly.

"Yeah, except Black Doom would have destroyed us if you weren't here," Amy snapped. "Shadow, this isn't your fault. And we need you. Who else is going to carry Sticks?"

Sticks waved from the corner. "Hi."

"I'm not a pack mule," he retorted. "I'm the Ultimate Lifeform."

"You're the Ultimate jackass right now," Amy spit. "This is my assignment. O'Malley made that perfectly clear. You aren't going anywhere, and that's an order."

Shadow looked like he was about to snarl a response, but all the fight suddenly dropped from his being. "Fine."

"Good," Amy nodded curtly.

"You know, you're pretty hot when you're in charge, Rose," he grinned.

"Shut up," she snorted.

"Not to interrupt, but is that what I think it is?" Rouge pointed. Amy turned, following her finger to see a small blue gem, almost completely buried within Black Doom's ashes.

"Yes!" Sticks cried. "One down, one to go!"

Amy scooped it up and dusted it off. "It was worth the fight, then." She tucked it into a tiny pouch that was secured to her belt.

"Amy, your shoulder is pretty torn up," Silver started.

"It's fine," she shook her head. "I'll patch it up once we get out of here."

"Speaking of which, how are we planning to do that?" Sticks questioned, motioning towards the only exit, which was the entranceway that they'd had to seal off earlier. "It kind of looks like our only way out is blocked."

"Gee, if only you had another team member willing to help you guys out," a sarcastic voice rang out from the ceiling.

All five group members looked up to see a familiar blue hedgehog, and an opening in the ceiling streaming sunlight.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Faker, what are you doing here?" Shadow questioned, secretly happy to see his friend. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Rescuing some dumbasses who decided to barricade themselves inside a cave with a raging psychopath," Sonic snapped, narrowing his eyes at Amy. She glared right back.

"In case you didn't notice, we did just fine without you," she yelled, displaying the Chaos Emerald.

"Yeah, and how are you planning on getting out of there, Rose?" he called back tauntingly.

"Amy, as much as I hate to agree with him, he's right," Rouge whispered, coming up next to her. "And you need to have your shoulder looked at soon."

"It's fine, I told you already," Amy brushed her off, but she knew it definitely wasn't. She could feel that it was dislocated, something she'd done several times before, but she could also feel drips of blood running down her back, leaving a trail behind her.

"And just how were you planning on getting us out?" Amy demanded. "I know you think pretty highly of yourself, but you and I both know you can't climb for shit."

"I may not be able to climb, but I know someone who can fly," Sonic gestured. A pair of golden fox ears peeked into the hole, grinning like mad when he saw his friends.

"Tails," Sticks breathed, a wave of relief going through her entire body.

"You guys are okay!" Tails exclaimed, beginning his descent into the cave using his twin kitsune tails. "Jeez, Blaze is worried out of her mind."

"Is she-" Silver began.

Tails interrupted. "She's fine, Silver. A few more seizures since last night, but nothing we couldn't handle. Knuckles is with her right now, he's been taking great care of her."

Rouge smiled secretly at this, careful not to let anyone else see.

"Okay," Silver breathed. "Thank you, Tails."

Tails reached the ground, and Amy turned to him with panic in her eyes. "You didn't tell him, right?"

"No, I didn't say anything," the fox affirmed, "but he should hear it from you, Amy, and soon. He went nuts when he heard you had already left without warning. Thought you were gone again."

Amy felt a slight pang of guilt, but she brushed aside. "Contrary to what he might have told you, I don't owe him anything."

Tails tilted his head, studying her expression. "That's true. You don't. But…"

"Oh, keep your logical advice crap to yourself," Amy muttered, making Tails chuckle and shake his head.

He turned to Sticks next, grabbing her up into a hug, not caring who saw.

"I'm glad you're okay," he whispered, blushing furiously. Sticks grinned.

"Doing great, thanks," she winked. "I mean, I still can't move my legs, so you're gonna have to be my personal chariot here."

"How did you-" he started, concerned, then shrugged. "Ah, never mind. You can tell me about it later."

He grabbed her around the waist and took off, quickly bringing her up and out of the cave. He put her down gently on the grass outside, and, making sure that Sonic was still distracted looking down into the cave, kissed her quickly but fiercely.

"I'm going to kill you when you get back," he promised, sounding about halfway between amused and furious.

"Bring it on, golden boy," she teased, laughing, before pushing him back towards the cave. "Now go save the rest of your friends."

One by one, Tails managed to bring everyone out of the cave. As he brought Shadow up, the black hedgehog glared towards Sonic. "I could have Chaos Controlled everyone out, you know."

"Oh, please," Sonic snorted. "You couldn't Chaos Control a piece of bread right now. You're exhausted."

Shadow opened his mouth to protest, but knew better. When he'd used up too much of his energy, it was always plainly visible. His red spikes turned dull, almost brown, as did his eyes, and his hands would start to trembling, which was ridiculously embarrassing. "Yeah, all right."

He sulked his way over to where Sticks, and now Rouge and Silver, were all sitting, scanning each other for injuries. Besides Sticks' paralyzed lower half, Silver's exhaustion from all the telekinesis, and a few scratches up and down Rouge's long legs and wings from being tossed around in the chaos, nobody seemed to have any major injuries. Shadow could feel a few of his ribs were broken, but he healed fast. And by fast, he figured a few hours, tops.

Tails, now tired as well, brought Amy up, the final member of the group. She was gripping onto his wrist with her good arm, her injured one held tightly against her body. She was in an enormous amount of pain, but she did her best not to let on. As soon as he put her down, Tails got out his kit and went to work on her shoulder.

Sonic approached her, fuming. "You could have told me where you were going."

"It's none of your business," Amy retorted, wincing. Tails noticed the look of pain on her face.

"Sorry, Amy. Looks like it's dislocated, and you've gashed it down to the bone here. I'm going to have to pop it back in and put in some stitches," he told her.

Amy shrugged with her good shoulder. "Fine. As long as I can still use it for the next fight."

"Next fight, my ass," Sonic snarled, his green eyes flashing. "You're injured, you can't go get the crap beat out of you again."

"As much as I appreciate the vote of confidence, I'm a big girl," Amy snapped, rolling her eyes at him. "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do."

Sonic looked at Tails, expecting him to talk some sense into her, but the fox just sighed. "As much as I'd rather you rest it for a few weeks, do what you have to do. Just try not to tear the stitches."

"No promises," Amy grinned. Tails looked at her with sympathy, taking hold of her arm and bracing himself.

"Not gonna lie, Amy, this is going to hurt," he sighed.

Amy clenched her good fist. "Done it before. Just get it over with."

Without allowing her time to anticipate it, Tails quickly wrenched her shoulder back into place with an audible 'click.' Sonic grit his teeth, but Amy just set her jaw, hissing a breath out.

"Okay, it feels good," Tails confirmed, smiling comfortingly, his hands gentle on her injury. "I'm going to stitch this up and you'll be good to go."

"Thanks, Tails," Amy smiled sincerely. She caught Sonic staring intently at her and glared.

"If you're not going back, I'm coming with you guys," Sonic stated firmly.

"Over my dead body," Amy snorted.

Silver looked up at Amy. "Actually… it would be nice to have an extra hand."

Rouge nodded in agreement. "Yeah. As much as I can't stand you-" and here she threw an angry look in Sonic's direction, "-any help is good help. Plus, the faster we find the last emerald, the faster we can transfer Iblis and be done with this whole thing."

Amy's eyes widened at the realization that her friend had just given her up by accident.

"'Transfer' Iblis?" Sonic began dubiously. "What are you talking about?"

Rouge clamped her mouth shut, knowing she'd messed up big time. She looked at Amy with apology and panic in her eyes.

"Amy…" Tails sighed. "Maybe you should tell him."

"Maybe you should mind your own business," Amy quipped angrily, just as Tails finished the last stitch and wrapped her shoulder a few times over with a stretch bandage.

"Amy, explain," Sonic demanded.

"It's not important right now," the pink hedgehog hissed. Fed up, Sonic took hold of her good arm and pulled her in the direction of the woods.

"I'll bring her back," he ground out as the two of them disappeared among the trees, Amy looking like she was ready to end him at any second.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Get… OFF me!" Amy growled, viciously shoving him off the second they were out of sight of their friends. "I swear to God, if you touch me again, I'll-"

"What the hell are they talking about, Amy?" Sonic challenged. "Transferring Iblis?"

"Sonic, this is so completely not the time for this," she snapped. "We have to go."

"Not until you tell me what that means," Sonic yelled.

"Fine!" Amy shouted. "Just shut up for a minute!"

Sonic obediently closed his mouth, still looking mad.

"You're not stupid, Sonic," Amy sighed. "Which means you know as well as I do that Blaze can't keep Iblis sealed inside her much longer. It needs a new host."

"And, judging by your exceptional track record with putting yourself in life-or-death situations, I'm guessing that's where you come in," Sonic said bitterly.

"Oh, bite me," Amy snarled. "Look, this has been my assignment for years now. It was why they brought me on in the first place. I've trained hard and I'm ready. And nothing you do or say is going to change my mind."

Sonic was quiet, seething with anger and frustration.

"Just go home," Amy instructed with a breath out. "Iblis isn't going to kill me for a long time, if ever, so you don't need to worry about me."

"Of course I do!" he exploded, standing up from the tree stump where he had been sitting. Amy was taken aback. "Amy, for the love of God, the past six years, and the ten years I knew you before that, all I've ever done is worry about you! It's exhausting, you know!"

Amy narrowed her green eyes, poised for a fight. "Well, then don't bother. It's not like it's your job."

"Jesus, how can someone so smart be so damn stupid all at the same time?" Sonic questioned sharply. "Of course I have to worry about you. That's what you do for the people you love!"

"Well, nobody said you had to love me!" Amy yelled.

"Yeah, well, I'll do what I want!" he retorted, nose to nose with her now, both of them furious.

"Fine!" she screamed.

"Fine!" he shouted, spinning on his heel and exiting the clearing quickly and angrily. The group all turned towards him, surprised at the change in his mood.

"Uh, Sonic?" Tails prodded, looking at him with concern.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sonic huffed. "You can go ahead back to Blaze, Tails. I'll keep an eye on everyone."

"I don't need a babysitter, Faker," Shadow snorted.

"Fine. Then I'll come with you as your inferior on your assignment," he replied tightly. "I don't care. Let's just get moving."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get some feeling back here," Sticks jumped in. "I'll probably be okay to walk soon."

"Sticks-" Tails started. She shot him a look, and he quickly quieted, knowing better than to argue with the wildly free-spirited girl.

"The jerkwad is right," Rouge sighed. "We need to start moving. Blaze isn't going to last much longer."

"Agreed," Silver nodded firmly. "As much as I'd rather take a three-hour nap, Blaze needs us."

"Then what the hell are we standing here for?" Amy called, emerging from the woods, also looking furious. Rouge and Sticks shared a look. "Shadow, any idea how far away we are?"

"Pretty damn far," he muttered. "I can't feel anything yet."

"Then we better start walking," Amy instructed. "Sticks, how ya doing over there?"

Sticks pushed herself up, wobbly. She took a few steps, and when she was satisfied that her legs would hold her, she flashed Amy a thumbs up and a grin. "Good to go."

"Shadow, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Amy requested, earning a scowl from Sonic in the process. Shadow snickered.

"Jeez, she doesn't forgive easily, does she, hero boy?" he laughed.

"Shut your face hole," Sonic snapped, walking quicker. The group quickly fell into a pattern, Amy in the front with Silver, planning out their path, then Rouge, who was still supporting Sticks as needed, then Sonic, who was fuming silently, and Shadow bringing up the rear, doing his best to listen to his senses. Still, he couldn't feel any sort of Chaos energy nearby, save for the emerald around his neck and the one in Amy's pocket.

Until…

Yes.

There, a slight tugging at his consciousness, barely perceptible, but it was there. He froze, and the rest of the group stopped walking. Amy turned and looked at him with a mix of concern and excitement.

"Shadow?" she ventured.

"Hush," he commanded, holding up a hand, trying to decide which way the Chaos energy was pulling him. Left, he decided, was the way to go. He pointed, and the group followed his finger. "That way."

"You're the boss," Silver shrugged, walking on. Everyone followed behind.

Rouge quickly caught up to Amy, using her wings to give her a little extra momentum. "So, you wanna explain all the anger back there? I can literally see it coming off you in waves."

Amy jerked a thumb back towards Sonic. "Do I even need to explain?"

Rouge held up her hands and giggled. "Say no more. Wow, he really knows how to get under your skin, doesn't he?"

"That's for sure," Amy growled, rolling her injured shoulder back and forth. It felt like someone had poured magma into it, but she did her best to think about other things. Things that would distract her.

And, imperceptibly, she found her mind wandering to the passionate makeout session she'd gotten herself caught up in just last night.

Of all people, it had to be with _him._ And as if that wasn't enough, it had to be good, too. And that was something she couldn't deny; it had been _really_ good. Thinking about it sent a shiver of desire down her back. The feeling of his mouth all over her neck… she had the sudden urge to turn round and jump him right there in the middle of the forest.

Then again, she also sort of wanted to beat him senseless.

Shaking the feeling and the memory off as best she could, she turned her mind back to the pain she was in. _Anything_ was better than having to think about him.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Ow," Blaze murmured, sitting up shakily.

"Easy," Knuckles chided, moving over to support her. "You probably shouldn't be moving too much."

"He's right," Tails agreed, coming back in through the door and smiling kindly at Blaze. "Sorry I took so long. Amy was being stubborn."

"Shocker," Knuckles muttered, making Blaze giggle slightly.

"How's your head?" Tails asked, concerned, feeling her forehead. She definitely had a fever now.

"Hurts," she whispered. Her eyes were dull, and she felt a rush of horror as they filled with tears. Blaze rarely cried. But this pain…

She was dying. She knew it, and she could tell with one look at Tails' face that he knew it too.

"Just… hold on for another day," Tails pleaded. "They've only got one more to find."

"Tails…" Blaze murmured, inhaling sharply. "I'm scared…. that I can't."

"Of course you can!" Knuckles announced with his best attempt at a smile. "You're Blaze, the most badass son-of-a-muffin on this, and most other, dimensions!"

Tails glanced over at him, puzzled. "Son-of-a-muffin?"

"I know what I said," Knuckles huffed. "You can do it, Blaze. Plus, if you die and Silver isn't here, he's going to off himself just to come find you in the afterlife and kick your ass for it."

"Just do your best, Blaze. We're not going anywhere," Tails comforted.

"Okay," she responded quietly. Another series of convulsions shook her, and her eyes closed tightly, her body doing its best to try and ride it out.

Knuckles sighed, looking down at her sadly. "Do you really think she's going last another day?"

"She has to," Tails replied, shifting the cat back onto her right side to help ease some of the tremors. But looking down at her, small and scared, his hope for her began to dim.

"We should call it a night," Shadow instructed. "We're close, I'll give you that, but we need at least a couple of hours of sleep if we're going to be up for a big fight tomorrow."

"Please," Sticks sighed, yawning. "I could keep going for days."

"You look like you're about to fall over," Rouge indicated. "Besides, you and I both know you still aren't a hundred percent."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sticks replied stiffly, but Rouge was right. Her legs were starting to get unsteady again.

"As much as I want to keep going so we can get back to Blaze, I think Shadow is right," Silver affirmed. "I'm exhausted, and I have a feeling getting the last emerald isn't going to be easy."

"All right, fine," Amy relented. "I could use some sleep, too."

Sonic glanced at her from behind. It was obvious (to him, but certainly not to everyone else) that she was in pain. A cut down to the bone isn't exactly easy to recover from. But he knew better than to ask her if she was okay.

The group set up camp in a nearby clearing. It was a warm night, all too familiar for those of them who lived at Boom Beach year-round. There were very few clouds in the sky, and the occasional lightning bug floated past them every few minutes. Heat lightning flashed far in the distance.

Amy had no idea what time it was, but she knew that both her mind and body were exhausted. She needed as much sleep as she could get. After all, tomorrow was the day she was supposed to transfer Iblis over to herself.

It would be a day six years in the making, and secretly, Amy still wasn't ready. The amounts of pain she had seen Blaze go through over the past few days had really frightened her. But of course, she would still do it. Blaze needed her.

She sat back against a tree, the rough bark rubbing up against her lower back, and sighed. Sure, there had been a lot of things to think about before she'd made the decision. Amy wanted to get married someday, to be a wife and a mom. This complicated things, but she had to trust that whoever she ended up with would understand and would support her anyway. Not that there were many men like that around nowadays, but a girl could dream. She knew Iblis would probably kill her someday. Like Shadow had said, she was signing her death warrant. But she was doing it to save one of her best friends.

It was worth it. At least, she thought it was. But the thought of it still freaked her out.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Ah!" Amy startled, eyes flying open to see a familiar blue face standing above her. "Oh, it's just you. You scared me."

"Sorry," he shrugged, sitting down next to her. "You looked worried."

"I'm fine," she brushed, turning away from him so that he couldn't see the expression on her face.

"Amy, I'm not stupid," he sighed. "I mean, you don't have to talk about it. But you can, if you need to."

"I'm fine," she repeated, voice faltering as if she was trying to convince herself.

Sonic looked at her, eyes filled with concern. "Amy…?"

She shifted her body back so that she was facing him, but she still refused to meet his gaze. The heat behind her eyes indicated to her that she would surely cry if she did. "I'm just… thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow."

"Right," he exhaled, casting his eyes downwards. "With the whole… sacrificing yourself for Blaze."

She finally looked up at him, her eyes flashing with… fear? Sadness? Something. "What would you do? If you were me, what would you have done?"

He met her sightline and sighed, looking at her frustratedly. "Probably the same thing," he confessed. "But that doesn't mean it doesn't scare the crap out of me that you're doing this. And I wish you wouldn't, even though I know that's selfish of me."

"I just…" she trailed off. "Even if I wanted to back out now, I can't. I just can't."

"I know," he replied.

She was taken by surprise. "Huh?"

"Don't look so shocked. Sometimes I'm not a complete ass," he smirked. "I know you, Amy, which means that I know you have to do this. I've loved you for far too long to not understand that."

Amy stared at him, sadness in her normally bright green eyes. "You say you love me. Is that true?"

Sonic nodded, closing his eyes and smiling warmly.

In a move that surprised both of them, Amy moved over to his side, laying her head on his shoulder and taking hold of his hand. He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed gently.

"I don't get scared very often," she confessed. "But this… this scares me."

"Iblis, or what we're doing?" Sonic asked.

Amy let a ghost of a smile play over her lips. "Both, I guess."

Sonic kissed her gently on the forehead. "Me too."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

They sat that way for a very long time. Eventually, Amy fell asleep, and so did he, resting his head on top of her own.

They both awoke at the same time, just as the sun was beginning to peek through the trees. A quick survey around her told Amy that everyone else was still asleep. Sticks was sleeping with her back to Rouge's in the grass. Shadow was curled up in a tight little ball, near the fire he had made last night, and Silver occasionally drifted up off the ground, his telekinetic energy uncontrolled.

"Sorry. I didn't wake you up, did I?" Sonic asked quietly, her hand still clutched tightly in his. She shook her head absently.

"No, you didn't wake me up," she replied.

"Amy, can I tell you something?" Sonic asked, gathering a breath in. She gazed at him and nodded. "I know…. I know that this is something you have to do. But I need you to know that if you change your mind or you can't do it… nobody's going to be mad at you."

"I'd be mad at me," she admitted with a small smile.

"I'm just saying," he continued, shaking his head at her. "If you change your mind… just tell me. Will you promise me that?"

She was quiet for a minute before she nodded. "Yes," she whispered.

"Okay," he accepted, nodding back. He put his fingers under her chin, tilting it up so that her sad eyes met his own before closing his eyes and brushing his lips against hers gently. She closed her eyes as well, capturing his lips in a sweet kiss. It wasn't like the other night, full of passion and anger. This was a sad, loving kiss. This was a goodbye kiss.

The two pulled apart and stared at each other. "If you tell anybody about this I'll kill you," Amy murmured, smirking slightly.

"I don't doubt that," he grinned, pressing his forehead to her own, a hand on her cheek, for a moment before pulling back from her entirely. He stood and offered her his hand, pulling her up beside him. "We should probably go ahead and wake everyone else up."

"Yeah, probably," she agreed.

She made her way over to the camp and gently shook Sticks and Rouge, who both looked up at her sleepily. "We have to go," she whispered.

"I'm awake," Sticks promised, sitting up and stretching.

"I'm not," Rouge grumbled, but she pushed herself up off the ground anyway. Looking behind her, Silver and Shadow were both awake now, too. Silver looked markedly better, much less exhausted. Small blue waves of energy occasionally emanated from his hands. Shadow also looked a little more steady today, Amy noted with some relief. It would have been a tough blow to lose him.

"Amy?" Sticks exclaimed urgently, pointing to something in the distance flying towards them. Amy quickly unsheathed her knife, gripping it tightly, but after a few seconds…

"I don't think that's… what is that?" Rouge squinted.

"Tails?" Sonic questioned. The golden kitsune quickly came into focus, and Shadow shared a worried look with Sonic. Tails wasn't supposed to be back.

Tails landed gracefully, but he was obviously in a hurry. He rushed up to the group and met Silver's gaze. He didn't even have to say a word.

"Blaze," Silver whispered, looking back to the group in obvious conflict. Amy stepped forward and took his hand.

"Go be with her," Amy commanded with a kind smile. "We've got this."

That was enough for Silver. He took off after Tails, back towards the shack.

"You don't think she's…" Amy couldn't finish the thought.

Rouge came up behind her and squeezed her shoulder. "No. Tails would have told us. But I think we need to hurry."

"Rouge is right," Shadow agreed. "Time to go finish this."

"Right," Amy faltered, and Sonic almost reached for her hand, but he restrained himself. "Right," she repeated, stronger this time, still holding her knife. "Then let's go."

"Um, I don't mean to be a bitch, but this doesn't really seem like an arena for a fight to the death," Sticks quipped. Hours later, the group had finally made their way through the trees and out onto the beach, where a long sandbar stuck out into the ocean.

"Maybe not, but I definitely feel something out here," Shadow muttered, leading them. They made their way down the sandbar, looking every which way on high alert. "We're right on top of it."

"Then something big's about to happen," Amy promised, crouched down into a fighting stance.

As if on cue, the ground beneath them began to shake violently, almost knocking all of them off their feet, but they stood fast, backed up against each other in a circle.

"How convenient," Rouge grumbled, notching an arrow into place.

Horrified, Sonic watched as an all-too-familiar figure energy from the ocean waters, staining them dark wherever he touched them. It was another hedgehog, but he was black as could be, darker than Shadow, with ice blue creeping up his legs and around his body. His eyes were red, narrowed at the group, full of hate, and his presence sent a wave of terror and uneasiness through all of them.

"Mephiles," Shadow exhaled incredulously.

"It knows me," the dark form acknowledged. It didn't have a mouth, but it somehow spoke with a deep, terrifying voice. He was cold and unemotional. "I feel… flattered."

"Don't be," Sonic snarled. "We've all met you. Unfortunately."

"You'll pardon me if I don't remember," Mephiles snorted. "Never mind that. I'm here for a reason. Iblis is coming."

"And you'll be gone before it gets here," Amy glared. She launched herself at him, knife in hand, an attack that would have been fatal for any other living being, but Mephiles seemed to know it was coming and countered, creating a sphere of pure energy and blasting her backwards.

"Ugh," Amy grunted, pushing herself up on her elbows where she had landed in the sand, her right cheek cut and bleeding.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to beat you again in this lifetime," Shadow sighed, narrowing his eyes and grasping the Chaos Emerald that hung around his neck, disappearing in a flash of blue light and reapearring behind Mephiles, a Chaos Spear clutched in his right hand, crackling with energy. Mephiles turned quickly, ducking and avoiding Shadow's first blow.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled. He turned to see her standing and pointing to a glowing object just barely visible in the water.

The last emerald.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Without hesitation, Sonic plunged into the warm water, streamlining down to the bottom. And there it was, simple as that, wedged halfway into the sand, glowing pink. He reached out to it, picked it up, and kicked back up to the surface as quickly as he could, running out of air.

He broke through the ocean, gasping and drawing in a much-needed breath of oxygen. He quickly swam back towards the shore, jogging back towards the pink hedgehog.

"That's seven," she murmured quietly, taking it and studying it. A shout startled them, and they looked back in the direction of the fight, where Sticks was doing a fine job keeping Mephiles busy while Shadow snuck up behind him. Mephiles saw it coming, though, and punched Shadow hard enough to send him flying. He landed a few feet from Sonic and Amy.

"Shadow," Amy called. "You good?"

"Dandy," he grumbled, but his eyes went wide when he saw the emerald she held. "You found it?"

"We got it," Sonic replied grimly. "Which means…"

"You two gotta go," Shadow finished. "Don't worry. I know how to kick some serious ass on my own, you know."

"Shadow? You want to get your ass over here and help a little bit?" Rouge yelled, firing an arrow directly between Mephiles' eyes, which only served to piss him off.

"Duty calls," Shadow nodded. "Amy…"

"I know," she smiled, hugging him quickly. "I'll see you soon, Shadow."

"Absolutely," Shadow confirmed before charging back into the fight.

"Well?" Sonic asked, studying her expression.

She let out the breath she had been holding before jumping on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Run fast."

The world shot by in a blur, and within seconds the two of them had arrived back at her place. Amy jumped down and quickly swung open the door.

Silver looked up at them, letting out a sigh of relief. "Way to cut it close."

"Sorry," Amy promised, kneeling beside Blaze. The cat opened her eyes slightly, as much as she could.

"Amy…" she murmured, her breathing shallow.

"Come on, Blaze. It's time to get this thing out of you," Amy instructed. Blaze, unaware of what she was saying, closed her eyes again.

"Amy, we need to do this now," Silver panicked. "She doesn't have long."

"I know," Amy nodded. "Tails, can you help me set these out?"

The two of them worked quickly, setting the Chaos Emeralds up around Blaze and Amy in a circle. Amy gripped Blaze's hands tightly.

"Amy…" Sonic started, meeting her eyes.

She held his gaze. "Don't leave," she said.

"Never again," he promised.

"Okay, Tails," she exhaled. "I'm ready."

Tails, reading from a page in one of his journals, began to read in an unfamiliar language. Blaze was just conscious enough to feel something happening within her.

Pressure.

It built, more and more, until she was sure her chest would explode. She gasped a breath in, grabbing at her chest, but the pressure just got more intense.

"Blaze?!" Silver yelled, but she could barely hear him above the blood pumping in her ears.

Just when she was sure the amount of pressure would split her apart, a flash of light emanated from the center of her chest, flooding out of her with the force of what felt like a train. She closed her eyes tightly against the pain.

Then, relief. Finally.

She cautiously opened one eye, realizing that she didn't hurt anymore.

And next to her, Amy did.

The golden flash of light that had just escaped from Blaze hit Amy full-force.

The pain was unreal. Amy had never felt anything like it, and she immediately felt a scream tear from her throat, unable to control it. It felt like every part of her body had been lit on fire.

"Amy!" Sonic cried, but there was nothing he could do. Amy felt the pain of Iblis flooding through her veins like molten lava. She could actually feel it becoming one with her soul. Another of her screams echoed through the shack, and she arched her back against the pain, panting.

Sonic grabbed her, holding her tightly as she screamed against the pain. He could feel tears prick at his vision. "Amy… you can do this. You don't get to leave me now." She braced herself against him, eyes squeezed shut, as golden light shone through her skin.

"I… can't…" she forced out, just as another massive wave of pain tore through her.

"Tails, this is killing her!" Sonic yelled. Tails looked frightened, flipping through his journal for any advice. It yielded nothing.

"What the hell did she do?" Blaze cried, even though she knew exactly what had happened. "If Iblis doesn't take, she's dead!"

"It has to take," Tails exclaimed, trying not to cry.

Amy dug her fingernails into Sonic's shoulder, crying in earnest now, and he ignored the pain, letting her hurt him if it made it easier for her. He pushed her back. "Amy, look at me!"

She raised her gaze to his, her normally green eyes turned gold and filled with excruciating pain. She made another noise through her teeth against the pain.

"You come back to me," Sonic commanded, holding her gaze as she squeezed his shoulder so hard he was sure it would break. But he didn't care. "Right now!"

She screamed one final time, and the golden light suddenly faded from her skin, like embers from a fire going out. Then she went completely limp in his arms, her head dropping to his shoulder.

"Amy!" Tails yelled, trying to shake her awake. Blaze turned to Silver, who grabbed her and hugged her tightly, turning her face away from her fallen friend. He had tears in his eyes too, caught between being relieved for Blaze and devastated for Amy.

"Is she breathing?" Sonic exclaimed, gently laying her down in front of him.

"Barely," Tails replied, gently patting her face. "Amy, come on, you can do it."

Amy's eyes shot open, still gold, but they slowly faded back to their normal emerald color. She drew in a breath, shaking.

"Oh, thank God," Sonic exhaled, putting his head in his hands before leaning down and kissing her fiercely on the forehead. "Thank God, thank God, thank God."

"Amy… are you okay?" Silver asked, still holding onto Blaze, who was also trembling.

Amy, terrified, met Sonic's gaze.

They were fighting a losing battle, Sticks knew it.

Her collarbone was broken, Rouge had a nasty tear in one of her wings, and Shadow was tiring quickly, having sustained too many injuries for his body to compensate for.

And Mephiles seemed like he wasn't even trying.

Every time one of them went after him, he just threw them aside like they were toys. Rouge, out of breath and bleeding, crouched low beside Sticks.

"He's kicking our asses," she coughed. "What the hell do we do?

Sticks glared up at Mephiles, who grinned back tauntingly. Shadow appeared beside the two of them, his expression one of obvious concern.

"One more strike," Sticks instructed. "As hard as we can from three sides."

"And if that doesn't work?" Shadow demanded.

Sticks drew in a breath. "Then it was a privilege getting to fight with you guys."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"I-I'm okay," Amy stuttered, slowly pushing herself into a sitting position. Sonic moved behind her and braced her against himself. She rubbed her temples, her head pounding.

"Amy?" Tails asked, shining a penlight in her eyes. She waved him off.

"I'm all right, Tails. I just need… just a second," she breathed, leaning forward on her hands and knees, shoulder blades sticking out slightly.

"You idiot," Blaze cried, flying at her and kneeling down in front of her. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"Blaze, Iblis was going to kill you," Silver chided, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Still! Christ, Amy, now it's going to kill you?" Blaze continued, eyes narrowed.

"Not for a very long time," Amy exhaled, flipping back over so that she could see her friend. Blaze's eyes were slowly but surely turning back to their signature gold. "Come on, Blaze, you really think I was going to just sit here and let you die?"

"Well, maybe you should have!" Blaze shouted, tears forming in her eyes.

"Blaze, don't," Silver murmured, hugging her from behind tightly. She collapsed into him, and he pressed his face into her neck.

"Amy, I really should do a quick physical on you," Tails started, but she shook her head at him.

"I'm okay, Tails. The pain's already starting to fade," Amy promised.

A scream cut into the distance.

"Sticks," Tails murmured, paling.

Amy's eyes widened, and she went to push herself up, but she quickly lost her balance and fells backwards. Sonic caught her and gently lowered her back to the ground.

"You aren't going anywhere," he instructed.

"I'm going," Tails insisted. "I'll call Knuckles on the way."

"Wait," Blaze called after him, her eyes lit up with fury. The kitsune turned. "It's Mephiles."

Tails, with an expression of horror, turned to Sonic for confirmation. He nodded. "Shit," Tails muttered.

"With Iblis…resealed, he's weaker," Blaze informed him. "Take advantage of it."

"Not a problem," Tails growled, whirling and running off.

Sonic glanced over to Silver. "I gotta talk to Amy. Maybe you could take Blaze out for some air? It might be good for her," he murmured so that the women couldn't hear.

Silver nodded his assent and made his way back over to Blaze.

"Let's go for a quick walk," he suggested. Blaze followed him out the door, lacing her fingers in his and grasping his hand tightly.

Sonic and Amy were the last two left in the shack.

"How are you feeling?" Sonic asked, sitting in front of her. His green eyes shone with concern, and he had a little dimple in the center of his forehead. Amy found herself half-smiling at the sight.

"Okay," she replied. "A little… off, but I guess that's to be expected."

"I'm not going to lie, Amy, I still sort of want to kill you for doing this," he sighed.

"Eh, do what you've gotta do," she joked. He gently shoved her shoulder and gave her a friendly smile. She grew serious. "But honestly, Sonic, I don't regret it. I'm sorry if you do."

He studied her face. "I didn't say that. I know you did the right thing. I'm just being selfish, I suppose."

"Selfish?"

"I sort of want you all to myself for the rest of my life, so you'll forgive me if I'm pissed that Iblis complicates that," he grinned crookedly.

"The rest of your life?" she questioned, arching an eyebrow. "That's a long time."

"I know," Sonic nodded.

"I have a life somewhere else now."

"I know that, too."

"I still don't know if I trust you."

"That's a given."

"And…" Amy breathed in. "This is a lot for me. With all that's happened today."

"Then don't worry about it," he assured her, kissing her forehead. "Worry about it when you're ready. But at least this way, you know."

"Yeah," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I know."

"One," Sticks yelled, crouched and ready to spring.

"Two…" Shadow continued.

"THREE!" Rouge screamed, hollering like a banshee. The three flew at Mephiles from three different sides, enclosing him in a triangle. Mephiles' eyes widened as he felt Iblis being transferred from one person to the other. He didn't have time to defend, just as he realized he was suddenly vulnerable to their attack.

Rouge notched an arrow, firing it directly into his chest, followed by four more. He groaned with pain, not pulling them out this time. Blood began to pour out, black as space, and Mephiles glared daggers at her, starting to spring for her, but Shadow landed a massive blow to the back of his head, and he stumbled.

That loss of balance, that one second, was enough for Sticks to strike.

She yelled, bringing her fighting stick in front of her and thrusting it as hard as she could directly into Mephiles' forehead. It went clean through, a fatal strike.

He screamed, a sound so deep and terrible that they all covered their ears. Sticks watched as he began to dissolve, into small blue and black crystals first, then into grains of sand, which returned to their rightful place on the ocean floor.

As soon as the last bit of sand settled, Sticks collapsed onto her knees, breathing heavily and clutching her right arm tightly to her chest to try and stem the pain from her broken collarbone. Rouge fell beside her, on her stomach, her left wing torn completely through and bleeding badly, and Shadow was the last to make his way back to the sandbar, panting from exhaustion and injury. Too many of his bones were broken for him to count.

"Wow," they heard from behind them, and they all whirled around (or, in Sticks' case, turned slowly to avoid excruciating pain) to see Knuckles and Tails standing there. Knuckles had a smirk on his face. "We were on our way to help you guys out, but clearly we aren't needed here."

"Thank God," Rouge sighed, passing out immediately. Knuckles ran to her, inspecting the tear in her wing and wrapping it up quickly but expertly with the tape he normally kept around his hands. Not the most sanitary, but better than nothing.

"Tails, I'm bringing her up to the workshop," Knuckles indicated, starting in that direction.

Tails nodded. "Do you need me?"

Knuckles shook his head in response. "I think I've got her," he assured, taking off.

Tails went to Shadow next, looking him over. "Geez, Shadow, you're in a million pieces."

"I'm fine," the dark hedgehog winced. "They're already starting to heal. You forget I'm not a loser mortal like the rest of you."

Pointedly, Tails glanced over at Sticks.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "For the love of Mobius, go kiss her already. You don't have all day."

"How did you- you know what? I don't care," Tails finished, before turning his attention to Sticks and examining her collarbone where it was broken, the same place he had kissed just a few nights ago.

She hissed through her teeth in pain, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Sorry," he whispered. His gentle fingers felt like butterflies making their way over her skin. "I'm going to take you up to the workshop and get this wrapped up really tight, okay? You won't even notice it when I'm done." He had tears in his eyes, so grateful that she hadn't been hurt worse.

"Before you do, didn't you hear what Shadow said?" she grinned, still grimacing slightly. "For the love of Mobius, kiss me already!"

He broke into happy laughter before leaning in and gently but passionately locking his lips with hers. She grabbed his collar with her good arm and pulled him in tighter before letting him go.

"Now please fix my collarbone before I die," she begged. He laughed again, easily scooping her up and starting back towards the workshop. He turned back slightly. "Shadow, are you com-"

The dark hedgehog was gone.

Tails shook his head. He'd be back next week. In the meantime, he had a collarbone to mend. And a badger to kiss.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"They did it," Amy said suddenly, her eyes going wide and her hand flying to her throat, breathing in quickly.

Sonic reached for her, thinking she was about to collapse again.

"No, it's okay," she shook her head. "And don't ask me how I know. I can just…tell. Mephiles is gone, at least for now."

"Thank God," Sonic sighed. "I'm going to have to ask them how they did that, because he was kicking our asses when we left."

"I hope they're not upset with me for leaving in the middle of a fight," Amy spoke, concern weaving its way through her voice. "Maybe I should have stayed."

"If you'd stayed, Blaze would be dead right now," he replied with a curt nod. "We made a choice. They'll be okay with it. Besides, it all turned out okay."

"Yeah, I guess so," Amy murmured, looking at the floor. She felt unsettled.

"Amy… it did turn out okay, right?" Sonic prodded, looking at her curiously.

"I think it did," she winced, rubbing her throat. "It's just… I don't know. I'll get used to it, but it's a weird feeling, having something else inside of me."

She realized how that could be construed at the same time he did, and they both flushed bright red.

"Oh, you know what I mean," she redirected, frustratedly. "If you make a sex joke right now I'll actually cut one of your hands off."

Sonic held up aforementioned hands in protest. "No sex jokes from me. I'm offended that you would assume that."

She gave him a pointed look.

"Fair enough," he conceded. "We can ask Blaze for some advice when she gets back. If anyone knows that feeling, it's her."

"We can just go sit if you're tired," Silver offered.

"Are you kidding?" Blaze had a small smile on her face. "I know it's selfish, and I'm still upset with Amy, but I'm finally not in pain."

"You have no idea how happy I am about that," Silver hugged her, resting his chin on the top of her head. "And if anyone else can keep Iblis in check, it's Amy. She's almost as badass as you."

"She's more badass than me," Blaze laughed. "That girl is a force of nature."

"How long do you think until she and Sonic get together?" Silver questioned knowingly.

"I give it about ten more minutes," she joked. "And then maybe we stay out of the shack for a while after that."

"God, I love you," Silver grinned, kissing her sweetly, pulling her body fully into his. She sighed into the kiss, melting against him, the end of her tail flickering playfully with flames. They pulled apart reluctantly, pressing their foreheads together. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"What?"

"It means," he smirked, "now I don't have to go so easy on you anymore in training." With a taunting laugh, he jogged away from her, towards the beach.

"Oh, you so were not going easy on me," Blaze hollered after him, chasing to catch up to him because, finally, she could.

"Ow, ow, ow," Rouge muttered, hissing through her teeth as Knuckles inspected her wing, as gently as a guy who was built like a tank could. "I swear to God, next time I get my hands on Mephiles…"

"Thanks to the three of you, that's not going to be for a long, long time," Knuckles grinned with relief. "You kicked his ass."

Rouge snickered. "We did, didn't we? Sticks especially. It was quick thinking on her part."

"Looks like you tore clear through your wing," Knuckles observed. "It'll heal on its own, but I'm going to have Tails wrap it up and you won't be flying for a while."

"Super," she muttered.

Knuckles came around and sat in front of her. "For what it's worth, it could have been much worse. You know, if you weren't such an ass-kicker."

"Yeah, well, I got the least of it," she winced, her torn wing folding in tightly against her back and her right wing flaring out to its full length to compensate for the loss. She glanced back at it, raising her eyebrows as if to say s _eriously, you can't keep yourself calm just this once?_ "I'm pretty sure Shadow broke every bone in existence and a few new ones we haven't discovered yet. And Amy…" she trailed off, realizing that she had almost forgotten what her friend had been doing while she was fighting. "Oh, Mobius, I forgot about Amy. Is she… she's not…"

"She made it through," Knuckles assured her, and Rouge almost fell over with relief. "It was touch-and-go for a while, but they transferred Iblis successfully and she's recovering. Blaze is doing fine, too."

"Thank God," Rouge sighed, putting a hand to her chest. "So that's why we were able to defeat Mephiles."

"Well, that, and you guys have some serious pent-up aggression going on," Knuckles smirked. "Seriously, remind me to never get on your bad side."

"Well, as I recall," she began, wincing in pain, "you did promise to take me to dinner. You going to back out on me?"

"Not a chance," he grinned, a real, genuine smile that made Rouge a little weak in the knees. "Soon as Tails gets you fixed up, you're coming out with me. And you know I know how to have fun."

"That, I don't doubt," she laughed.

The two of them turned as the large metal doors to the workshop creaked open, and Tails came in, carrying Sticks, who looked positively murderous.

"I swear to God, next time I get-"

"Your hands on Mephiles? I feel you," Rouge finished sympathetically. "How's the collarbone?"

"Broken," Tails affirmed. "Extremely broken. Lucky for you ladies, I happen to be pretty decent at this sort of thing."

"Yeah, well, that's not the only thing you're decent at," Sticks muttered under her breath, but Tails heard, his face immediately flaming red, and almost choked. Sticks chuckled at his reaction. "Oh, relax, Rouge got it out of me already."

"As much as I love her, she's never been the best at keeping secrets," Rouge snickered. Knuckles furrowed his crimson brow, looking confused.

"Did I miss something?" he asked, glancing between the badger and the kitsune.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sticks deadpanned, her eyes glinting mischievously. Tails coughed nervously, his twin tails fluttering gently in circles behind him, ready to make a quick getaway if necessary.

Rouge cast a sideways glance at him, winking. "I'll fill you in later."

"OKAY," Tails said loudly, making Sticks dissolve into laughter. "As much as I'm enjoying this competition of who can make who the most uncomfortable, I'm supposed to be working miracles here!"

Sticks opened her mouth to fire off another innuendo, but he glared at her and she immediately pressed her lips together, trying her hardest not to snort.

A few minutes later, Sticks had her arm wrapped tightly against her body, in the proper position so that her collarbone could begin the healing process on its own. Rouge had her entire left wing bandaged tightly down against her back, much for the same purpose. Her right wing kept flitting uncertainly, as if wondering where its partner went. Rouge and Knuckles had quickly filled Sticks in on Amy's condition to help distract her from the pain as Tails set her broken bone.

"I still can't believe her," Sticks shook her head. "Of all the dumb things to do…"

"Brave," Knuckles corrected. "Dumb, but extremely brave."

"I bet Sonic wants to kill her right now," Tails muttered, stitching up a particularly deep cut on Sticks' outer left thigh.

"If he does, I'll kill him first," Rouge narrowed her eyes.

"You really don't like him, do you?" Knuckles questioned.

"Amy told me the stories. I know enough about him to know I don't trust him," she replied, clenching her fists.

"Sonic's not a bad guy," Tails sighed. "He's just… misguided sometimes. And I'll be the first to admit that he's not great with major life decisions. He spooks easily."

"You have to say that about him, you're his best friend," Sticks pointed out.

"That doesn't mean it's not true," he replied. "Come on, we all used to be best friends."

"I guess part of it is that we've all just been separated for so long," she sighed. "It's been, what, six years now?"

"Well, I just met most of you people," Rouge quipped. "So I don't have that excuse."

"He changed a lot after Amy left," Knuckles told her. "He grew up real quick. Learned he couldn't treat people like crap and expect them to still be around when he woke up the next morning. And yeah, he did treat her badly, but he also missed her every day she was gone. Never even looked at anyone else."

"That's… sort of sweet," Rouge conceded begrudgingly. Knuckles grinned at her, and she glared in response. "I said sort of!"

"Well, I think you two are about as put back together as you'll ever be," Tails nodded. "But if I see anybody training, or fighting, or otherwise engaged in combat, I'm going to come after you."

"Pretty sure I can outrun you if I had to," Sticks teased.

"In your dreams," he snickered.

"I'm going to take Rouge back to Amy's place to check things out. Are you two coming?" Knuckles asked, gingerly helping the bat up off the table she had been sitting on and subtly taking her hand in the process. Rouge immediately blushed.

"We'll be along in a minute. I need to talk to the genius over here," Sticks gestured, pointing a thumb at the fox. Knuckles nodded and the two of them made their way out of the workshop, but not before Rouge glanced back and winked at Sticks, who made a shooing motion with her good hand.

The doors creaked shut behind them, and Sticks and Tails were left alone now.

"If this is about the whole 'who can outrun who' thing, we both know-" Tails began, but she quickly silenced him, pushing herself off the table and sitting down next to him on his workbench.

"Shut up for a second," she grinned.

"That's not very nice-"

She put a hand up to his mouth. "I'm trying to thank you, you dumbass!"

"Thank me for what?" Tails replied, pushing her hand away.

"For coming after us," she continued. "Well, twice, I guess. We would have been stuck in that cave for all eternity if it wasn't for you. And just now, well, I guess we would have had the worst walk back from the beach in existence. So thank you, you know, for being there and all that." Suddenly embarrassed, she felt her face heat up and glanced down at her lap, realizing that one of her pant legs had been torn completely through up to her knee.

"Sticks, getting sentimental on me? I never thought I'd see the day," Tails chuckled.

"Yeah, I don't get sentimental because when I do, you guys get all-" she started to argue, but Tails cut her off by squeezing her hand.

"I'm just messing with you. Of course I'll always be there. Don't you know that by now?" He grinned at her and scratched his left ear sheepishly.

"I have to leave," she burst out suddenly, and he looked confused and taken aback. "Sorry," she explained. "It's just that, you know, our assignment is complete. Which means that they're expecting me to go back with them. And if I do, I won't be here, which means…"

"Of course you have to go," Tails replied. "I wouldn't expect anything else. You've got a pretty badass career now, and who'd want to walk away from that?"

"But…" Sticks trailed off, still refusing to meet his gaze.

"But what?"

"I… I don't know if I want to leave you again," she confessed, mortified.

"Who said you had to?" he teased. "From what I hear, GUN is always looking for tech nerds like me."

She looked up at him incredulously, her blue eyes going wide. "You're kidding."

"Nope," he smiled. "I love Boom Beach, but at some point I've got to move on, you know? And I can't think of a better reason."

"You are the best," Sticks laughed, tackling him with a koala hug and knocking them both off the workbench. They landed in a familiar position, with her on her knees on top of him.

"Why must you always insist on knocking me over?" he chuckled, propping himself up on his elbows, blushing slightly as her long brown hair, which had long since come out of its pigtails, brushed his shoulders.

"Because I know you secretly love it," she giggled, supporting herself with her good arm.

"You got me," he conceded, pulling her in so she was on his lap and closing the distance between them finally.

This wasn't like their other kisses, which had been desperate and heated. This was a slow, sweet, romantic kiss, one that seemed like it wasn't going to end anytime soon. Sticks smiled slightly as she wound her legs around his waist, both out of habit and to support herself due to the fact that she only had one good arm. He kissed back, his arms wrapped firmly around her back and waist, his tails brushing her legs every few seconds like they just couldn't contain themselves. Breaking the kiss, he buried his face in her neck, trailing it up and down with his lips, breathing in the whole of her.

"We gotta go check on Amy," Sticks said breathlessly, making no attempt to pull away. Whatever Tails was doing felt too good.

"In a minute," Tails replied, his voice muffled by her fur.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Did the walk go okay?" Amy asked, sitting cross-legged on her couch as Blaze and Silver came back in through the door, hand-in-hand.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Blaze nodded, sitting down next to her and putting a hand on her knee. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she smiled. "A little strange. I'll probably have a lot of questions later."

"I'll be back in a second," Silver offered, going into the kitchen in search of Sonic.

"Amy," Blaze began, turning to face her. "I never thanked you."

"You don't have to," Amy shook her head.

"Of course I do," Blaze argued. "I mean, Amy, if you hadn't come along when you did, I'd be dead by now. And now you have to deal with all this, and I…. I just feel horrible." She gazed down at her lap, the end of her tail flickering with flames. "This shouldn't have to be your problem."

"Blaze, listen to me very carefully," Amy gazed at her friend. "There is NOTHING I wouldn't do for you. And the same is true for the rest of my friends. I don't have any regrets, and I'll be damned if you do."

The girls both cracked a smile at that and soon found themselves laughing.

Sonic had busied himself in the kitchen, taking things out and putting them away again, just so he could have something to do with his hands. In normal circumstances, he would have gone out for a run, but he didn't want to go too far in case Amy needed him.

God, how things had changed since he was younger. What an idiot he had been back then.

"How's she doing?" a voice came from behind him, startling him. He almost dropped the clear glass he was holding. Turning, he saw Silver behind him, leaning against the doorway.

"You passed her three seconds ago, I'm sure you asked her," Sonic smirked to himself.

"I did. I want to know how you think she's doing," Silver raised his eyebrows.

"I think she's pretty capable of expressing her own emotions," he replied, turning his back to the silver hedgehog and placing the glass safely in the cabinet above him, where he had already moved it from at least twice before.

Silver moved silently towards the kitchen table and sat down in one of the chairs there. "Did I ever tell you what happened to me after Blaze merged with Iblis?"

"I've heard the story," Sonic shook his head. "You lost your memory of her, she ceased to exist from your timeline, eventually you two met again, blah blah."

"Actually," Silver hesitated. Nobody but Blaze knew this, but he knew Sonic was going to need some sort of help here. "…no."

"No?" Sonic questioned, turning to face him, leaning his weight back against the countertop.

"No," Silver affirmed, nodding. "I never lost my memory of her."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic narrowed his gaze. "She went back to her own dimension. You told us you didn't remember a thing."

"Because that was the better option," Silver said firmly, meeting his gaze head on with no more doubt. "It was either that, and everything went on around me like nothing had happened, or sit there and deal with the fact that I was in love with a girl who had just completely disappeared from my own timeline."

Sonic pinched his forehead and shut his eyes. "Mobius. Why'd you keep that from us? We could have helped you, you know."

"And if Amy had died an hour ago?" Silver pushed. "Would you have wanted help?"

Sonic sighed before sitting down in the chair next to him, folding his hands on the table. "No. I probably wouldn't be here."

"Exactly," Silver pointed out kindly. "Blaze was as good as gone for me. It was just the easier thing to do."

Sonic was quiet.

"And then…" Silver continued, smiling to himself. "I found her again just a few years after that."

 _Some things never got any easier, Silver thought to himself, grumbling as he sifted through the rubble. Two years later, and his entire planet was still mostly a pile of ash and twisted metal. There were very few of them residing there now. He and a few of the other people who had survived the entire ordeal constantly dug through what had become of their daily lives, looking for any new sign of survivors. As the days had passed, they were finding more bodies and fewer living souls. Past day twenty, they hadn't pulled anyone else out of the piles who hadn't already died._

 _One of the younger kids, a rabbit with light blue fur, came rushing up to him. Silver quickly recalled her name. Lily._

 _"Mr. Silver," she panted, her eyes wide with panic. "You better come see this."_

 _He followed behind, sprinting after her, down towards where the docks used to be. The water, once a clear and peaceful blue, was now stained permanently red with dust and blood. Two lone docks stood standing, their brethren having long since been destroyed._

 _A crowd of about five of the rescuers stood whispering around a lone figure in a long, light purple cloak. It had a hood covering its head._

 _"Who is that?" Silver breathed, slowing down to try and catch his breath._

 _"Dunno," the bunny shook her head, her long ears flopping almost comically. "She jus' showed up, asked us if we knew where you was."_

 _"Where you 'were'," Silver automatically corrected. It had become somewhat habit for the older survivors to raise the younger ones over the years._

 _"Sorry," Lily shrugged, grabbing his arm and pulling him over to the dock where the figure stood. She was surprisingly strong for such a young girl._

 _The rescuers saw that Silver had finally made it, and quickly backed up to give him room, still whispering amongst themselves. Silver stepped forward, eyeing the figure warily. "You asked for me?"_

 _The figure turned and Silver almost fell backwards in shock. She was a few years older now, but the girl under the cloak was, unmistakably, Blaze. Her gold eyes met his and she breathed out a sigh of relief._

 _"Holy Chaos, Silver, you have no idea how long I've been trying to find you," she exhaled, running at him and embracing him tightly, her cloak hood falling off as she did so. Her outfit no longer consisted of the short purple dress and white leggings she used to wear. Now she instead had on a tight purple t-shirt, black running tights with a sheer panel tracing the sides, a pair of purple and white cross trainers, and her same ponytail that she always wore. Her red gem glinted in the center of her forehead like always, and her face had changed, looking wiser and more seasoned now._

 _Shocked, Silver just stood there._

 _"Mr. Silver, do ya know her?" Lily asked, reaching back for the tiny knife she always kept on her just in case._

 _Blaze, confused, released him and took a step backwards. "Silver…? Do you…. do you remember me at all?"_

 _He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "I… Mobius, of course I remember you, Blaze. I just… I thought you were gone."_

 _Blaze's face fell slightly. "After… what happened, I somehow ended up in an entirely new dimension. I figured you'd sent me there, but I don't think it would have looked familiar to you, either. So I spent the last two years finding different ways to go from dimension to dimension, looking for you." She glanced down at her feet, and Silver noticed, for the first time, a faded scar extending from her collarbone to her neck, almost five inches long. "A lot of the people I met weren't nearly as welcoming as you were."_

 _Lily looked up at the cat with amazement. "Hey, wait a minute. I know you!"_

 _Blaze glanced down at her, looking a bit worried. "Huh?"_

 _"My mum used to tell me about you, before she died last year. You're the girl who plays with fire!" Lily exclaimed. Silver, knowing how sensitive Blaze was about her pyrokinesis, moved a bit closer to her._

 _Blaze felt her breath catch in her chest. "Oh." And this was where nothing ever changed. Everyone would either start running away, or would make fun of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the ever-present teasing to begin._

 _"You're the coolest!" Lily jumped up and down. "She says you saved this whole entire planet! If you hadn't a been here," and here, she made an exploding motion with her arms and hands. "KABOOM!"_

 _Silver grinned at the bunny. God bless that kid._

 _"…really?" Blaze asked, feeling a tiny ball of hope forming in her stomach._

 _"Yeah!" Lily cried. "Oh, man, you worked with her, Mr. Silver? You're the luckiest guy ever!"_

 _Blaze turned back to the silver hedgehog. She realized he was no longer shorter than her, but had at least two inches on her now. His once childish form had filled out, now showing the beginnings of a man's body, more built. He wore a black t-shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages, and a pair of camo-patterned shorts, along with some black sneakers being held together with black electrical tape. His hands still glowed with the familiar blue light she'd gotten so used to in all the time she knew him, and he sported some battle scars of his own. Most of all, the naivety in his eyes had been replaced with… something else, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Sadness, maybe._

 _"I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner," she confessed. "I tried, I really did. I saw Sonic once, when he was making his rounds, and I saw Shadow a few times. I just asked them not to mention me to you, and they said you'd lost your memories of me anyway._

 _"Chaos," he murmured, stepping forward and grabbing her up into a hug, almost lifting her off her feet. She squeaked in surprise. "I can't believe you're even alive."_

"Okay…" Sonic sighed. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"I'm telling you that so you realize how hard it was on me after Blaze sacrificed herself to Iblis," Silver told him. "And, you know, I knew immediately that I had feelings for her. It's not the same for you and Amy, but-"

"Yeah, definitely not," Sonic snorted, changing the direction of his gaze so Silver couldn't see that he was nervous.

"Just don't be dumb," Silver warned him, earning a glare from the blue hedgehog. "She's gonna need someone, no matter how much she swears she won't, because you and I both know Amy, and she's going to do everything in her power to stay independent."

"Jeez, ten years ago, and I would have burst out laughing at the mention of 'Amy' and 'independent' in the same sentence. Now?" Sonic continued. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Let her do what she needs to do," Silver advised, turning and heading out of the kitchen, "but don't let her go like you did last time."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"So does it always feel like this?" Amy asked, clasping her hands around her stomach. "Just… unsettling?"

"Pretty much," Blaze sympathized. "I always sort of felt like I was going to throw up at any given time. Which is not exactly the sort of image I wanted to project."

"Ugh," Amy muttered. "I mean, I'll get used to it. It's just…"

"Yeah," Blaze finished, giving her a kind smile. "I know."

"Thanks for telling me all this stuff, Blaze," Amy replied. The two girls had spent the past fifteen minutes discussing different ways for Amy to get along with her life as normally as possible. Blaze had several pieces of advice for her, little ways to make her feel closer to the way she had before. "I'm really grateful."

"If anyone's grateful, it should be me, Amy." Blaze's eyes were serious. "I can't even begin to tell you what a heroic thing it was you did."

"I don't know about that," Amy murmured, slightly embarrassed. She quickly changed the subject, desperate for the focus in the room to be anywhere but on her. "How are you and Silver doing?"

Now it was Blaze's turn to look embarrassed. "Good, I suppose. He seems quite happy."

"How'd you know?"

"How did I know what?" Blaze asked, leaning back against the couch.

"You know… how did you know that you were in love with Silver?" Amy asked, some confusion in her eyes.

Blaze, who was not entirely prepared for her question, looked startled and blushed furiously. "Oh… oh, Amy, it was so long ago. I don't even remember now."

Amy looked unsatisfied, but nodded before rising unsteadily as Blaze offered her a hand. She politely refused it. "I'm going to go walk down to the beach, I think. I'll be back in a little while."

"Okay," Blaze agreed, watching the girl as she walked out of the hut. She looked… different, somehow, to Blaze.

The cat glanced back toward the kitchen, where Silver and Sonic were having a conversation, and smiled slightly at how he used his hands for every little expression when he spoke.

 _"Two years," Blaze murmured, flinching slightly as she felt sharp pieces of metal biting at her ankles. She and Silver were making their way back through the remains of his old home planet, followed closely behind by a small, pale blue bunny and a group of about five other rescuers. Silver also carried a small badger, maybe four years old, who had fallen asleep in the midst of all the action. She noticed that Silver's ankles were so cut up, they looked like they had been run through a paper shredder, but he didn't really seem to notice. "If only I'd come back sooner."_

 _"You said it yourself," Silver shrugged, shifting the sleeping badger from one hip to the other. The child sniffed in his sleep but didn't wake up. "Jumping dimensions takes time."_

 _They finally arrived at what looked like an old, burnt-out apartment building. The group following them quickly scattered to their respective rooms. One of them, a dark red vixen, took the badger from Silver with a kind smile. He nodded gratefully at her._

 _"My room's up here past that hole," he offered, pointing out a spot in the floor where something huge and heavy had clearly torn through the wooden floorboards. He started forward, stopping when he realized that Blaze had gone quite still. "Everything okay?"_

 _She glanced up, and he was shocked to see tears in her eyes. If there was one thing Blaze never did, it was cry. But yet, here she was, her golden-hued eyes glinting with tears in the evening sun beating down._

 _"Blaze?" he asked, walking back towards her._

 _"Sorry," she exhaled, her voice shaky. "I just… I wish I had gotten here sooner, Silver. You had to grow up so quickly."_

 _"Blaze," he sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's not just me. Everyone who survived had to take up some slack. And it's good for me. Welcome to the real world, right?"_

 _Blaze looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Silver, this is not the real world. Not what it's supposed to be, anyway."_

 _"I know," he smiled crookedly. "But it is, at least for us. Look, late or not, I couldn't be happier you're here, Blaze. I missed you more than you'll ever know."_

 _She gave him a small smile, wiping the tears away from her flushed cheeks._

 _"Come here," Silver offered, pulling her in for a hug. He could feel the afternoon heat radiating off of her body, and he realized that she still had her cloak on. "Geez, you're burning up. Here."_

 _He popped the clasp that held the cloak around her shoulders, but she grabbed it before it could fall and clutched it tightly to herself. "I'm okay," she murmured._

 _"Blaze, you feel like an oven."_

 _"I don't want to take it off," she admitted to him._

 _"Why not?"_

 _"Because…" she trailed off, not wanting to tell him the real reason. Her tail, betraying her, twitched underneath her cloak, as if asking her to let it out so it could breathe._

 _"Blaze," he said seriously, prompting her to look at him. "Nobody here would ever make fun of you. Especially not for something as beautiful as your flames."_

 _"They aren't beautiful," she whispered, another tear tracking its way down her cheek. So many years of never showing any emotion was finally taking its toll. "They're humiliating."_

 _"Why?" he asked simply, taking her hand. "How many times have those same flames saved everyone?"_

 _She ducked her head, embarrassed, but he put a finger under her chin and pushed it back up._

 _"They're part of you, Blaze. Of course they're beautiful," he said kindly, brushing a tear away with his thumb. Blaze felt her stomach jump at the intensity of his gaze, but in a good way._

 _Carefully, she unwrapped the cloak from her shoulders, folding it in front of her and looking down at the floor. She was terrified that, when she looked up, Silver would look nervous or scared of her. But when she finally brought her gaze up, he was grinning at her._

 _"See? It's not so bad," he teased, making her laugh._

 _Blaze would never tell anyone, not even Silver, but that was it. That was the moment she had fallen in love with him, because nobody else had ever made her feel beautiful for being different._

Sonic put his head in his hands. "Silver, what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

"What do you mean?" Silver asked, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

The blue hedgehog glared at him, his green eyes flashing. "We both know you didn't tell me that story for no reason."

"That's true," Silver shrugged. "Why'd I tell it to you?"

"Cut the cryptic shit, Silver," Sonic snapped. "I told her I loved her. I think she got over me a long time ago."

"You completely missed the point of my story," Silver shook his head. "I thought I'd moved on from Blaze, too. But seeing her again brought it all back for me. I don't think Amy's as far gone as you think she is."

Sonic looked out into the living room, where Blaze was sitting on the couch, facing the two of them, presumably having heard every word. "Where'd Amy go?"

"Out for a walk," Blaze offered, coming into the kitchen and sitting in the chair next to Silver. "She'll be back in a little while."

"Right," Sonic exhaled.

"You know," Blaze continued. "I think Silver's right. I don't think you should give up on Amy quite yet."

"How do you know?" Sonic replied, looking frustrated.

"I consider myself to be a smart person," Blaze winked at him. "You're just going to have to trust me on this one."

Sonic gazed at the two of them. Silver had taken her hand and watched her as she spoke like she was the most interesting thing in the universe to him.

"Sonic, when you fall in love with someone, you stop just living for yourself. Instead, now, you're living for both of you," Silver explained, and Blaze blushed as she smiled at him. "So you can't always do what your heart is telling you. You have to do what's best for both of you."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Shadow slowly made his way to his apartment, just outside GUN headquarters. As much pain as he was in, he knew he'd be fine in the morning. This was just embarrassing.

He put his palm up to the scan pad outside his door, which flashed green and unlocked the door for him. Sighing with relief, he slowly lowered himself onto his couch.

He smiled at the thought of everything they'd accomplished that day. He'd see the others again soon enough, he knew that for sure. Rouge, Amy, and Sticks never stayed away from GUN headquarters for very long.

Sleep quickly overtook him, letting his mind rest as his body healed.

Amy finally arrived back down at the beach, sitting down gently in the sand. It seemed smaller than she remembered, somehow. Maybe it was just that she had grown.

Blaze was right, she did feel like she was going to throw up.

For a brief moment, the thought of staying back at Boom Beach crossed her mind, but she just as quickly put it to rest. There was nothing here for her. Not anymore, anyway.

She felt an awful lot like the little girl who had run from here so many years ago. Small and scared. She hugged her knees to her chest and let all the air out of her lungs. In her shorts, the scar on the inside of her thigh was glaringly obvious in the late afternoon sun. She ran her fingers over it thoughtfully.

 _"I haven't seen this clown in a while," Amy snorted, launching herself up off a table just seconds before Metal Sonic destroyed it. She grabbed one of the beams on the ceiling and swung gracefully down, landing in a crouch._

 _"He's fun, isn't he?" Rouge asked, taking out her crossbow and firing a shot directly into his left arm, which easily separated from his body. The arrow, still trailing the arm, buried itself in a wall thirty feet behind him. Metal Sonic glanced down at the empty arm socket, as if computing what had just happened, before continuing his attack._

 _Amy pounced, knocking him to the ground and landing on top of him. She quickly pulled out the knife she had been given just a few days ago by the armory attendant at GUN. She trained with it since then and had grown to like it very much._

 _What she didn't expect was Metal Sonic's last line of defense. His normally black-and-red eyes changed to a painfully familiar green._

 _Amy hesitated, her knife poised directly above Metal Sonic's forehead._

 _That second of hesitation was all it took. She felt a horrible burning pain through her entire thigh. She didn't even scream, just gasped, immediately feeling the warm gush of blood._

 _Metal Sonic shoved her roughly to the side, fixing another laser at her forehead. She closed her eyes._

 _"Amy!" Rouge yelled, firing another arrow, this one going directly through the back of Metal Sonic's head, taking him out instantly. He fell forward with a loud crash._

 _Amy stared with wide eyes at the inside of her thigh, which was pouring blood._

 _"Shit, shit, shit," Rouge cursed, flying quickly to her friend. "What the hell happened?"_

 _"I don't know…" Amy breathed heavily. "For a second, he looked like…" She paused before shaking her head. "Nobody. I just didn't see it." She swayed, blackness dancing at the edges of her vision._

 _"We can't wait for a medic," Rouge decided, hoisting Amy up in her arms and extending her wings to their full length. "We're going now."_

 _"Okay," Amy affirmed before passing out._

 _She woke up briefly once they got the the hospital. Several doctors tried to get control of the bleeding, and one of them yelled something about an artery. She couldn't really hear. Everything looked too bright. She closed her eyes again._

 _When she opened them, she was in the operating theater, and there was a part of her brain that kept repeating, "You're going to die, you're going to die…"_

 _A nurse peered at her worriedly. It was a younger woman, a fox, or maybe a wolf. Amy couldn't really tell. The woman whispered comforting words as Amy tried to fight the tears back. The woman noticed, leaned in, and murmured something to her._

 _"It's all right to be scared, hon."_

 _At this, Amy felt the tears rush down her face. Surely she was dying now. Her first assignment with GUN, and she had gone and gotten herself killed. All because she still cared for that idiot._

 _She vowed to herself. If she made it through this, he would never distract her again._

 _Blackness finally took over the majority of her vision, and her last thought was that she wasn't ever going to wake up again._

Silver and Blaze had left Sonic alone in Amy's house.

He was okay with that. Actually, he'd insisted they go spend some time by themselves. It was a pretty big day for them.

But now, he sat alone with his thoughts at the kitchen table, tracing the wood grain with his fingers.

 _"Sonic, would you please open the door?" Tails sighed, smacking the door frustratedly with his open hand. "Come on, you can't ignore me."_

 _Frustrated, Sonic swung the bedroom door open. "I'm not ignoring anyone," he insisted stubbornly._

 _"Don't bullshit me," Tails replied, annoyed. Sonic startled a bit; Tails never really cursed._

 _He relented. "Fine. You got me. I'm ignoring people."_

 _Tails sighed again. "Oh, Sonic."_

 _"I just can't believe she packed up and left, ya know?" He started pacing a circle around the room. "I mean, sure, I screwed up, but was it really that bad?"_

 _The young fox gave him a questioning stare._

 _"Okay, yeah. It was that bad," Sonic exhaled. "I really fucked up here, huh, bud?"_

 _"I don't think I would phrase it quite like that, but yeah, you did," Tails agreed, gazing down at his feet. "You really messed up with Amy."_

 _"Maybe I should go after her," he continued, pacing faster now. Tails glanced warily at the carpet. Last time he'd done this, he'd accidentally set it on fire. "You know, go apologize. She'd understand, right?" Sonic looked over at his younger friend pleadingly._

 _Tails broke his gaze and stared at the wall. "Sonic… I don't think she would. Not this time. I mean, she's forgiven you before, but she's never left."_

 _"I can't just let her go!" Sonic argued. "Just leave her to fend for herself? She could die!"_

 _"Amy's a lot stronger than you give her credit for," Tails reminded him. "She can take care of herself."_

He exhaled angrily and folded his hands on the table, thinking about the last time he'd seen her before she came back. He'd never told anyone, not even Tails.

 _"Amy Rose," Sonic panted, placing his hands on the hospital desk as the charge nurse raised an eyebrow at him. "Please, I'm her emergency contact, and I got a call…"_

 _"Right. I'll see if she's up for visitors yet," the nurse replied, a young brown wolf with striking blue eyes. She headed off down the hallway, and Sonic did his best to peek around the corner and see what room she went into, but he couldn't quite make it out._

 _Instead, he sat down, his back against the wall. If Amy was hurt, really hurt, then it was all his fault. A horrible feeling settled in the pit of his stomach, right next to the little bit of hope he felt at the idea of getting to see her again._

 _Minutes later, the nurse returned, avoiding eye contact with him now. "I'm sorry. She's not available for visitors at this time."_

 _"She's…not?" Sonic questioned, his hope sinking. "Please, did you tell her it was Sonic? We're friends- well, we were friends, and-"_

 _"She knows who you are," she interrupted, meeting his sightline now. "I'm sorry to be blunt, sir, but she doesn't want to see you. She asked me to tell you to please leave."_

 _"But… she's hurt…" he stuttered._

 _"I'm sorry. She's well within her rights to refuse visitors. I'll have to ask you to go back to the lobby and exit now." Not unkindly, the nurse led him back to the double doors._

 _"Please," he begged earnestly, looking at the nurse. He was almost in tears at this point. "Is she going to be okay?"_

 _The nurse took pity on him. "She'll be fine after she heals. That's all I'm legally allowed to tell you, and even that's pushing it."_

 _"Wait, one last thing," Sonic's voice cracked. "You gotta tell her for me… tell her… tell her I didn't mean it, okay? Please."_

 _The nurse narrowed her gaze at him, then nodded. "Fine. But you need to leave now, sir."_

 _"Okay," he whispered in response, walking slowly back out the double doors. They closed silently behind him, completely sealing him off from Amy for the last time._

 _A text came through his phone exactly one week later._

 _"Sorry about the call. I've switched my emergency contact to Rouge, so you won't be bothered again. This number is getting disabled in the next few minutes, and I'll have a new one, so you won't be able to reply. Please don't ask for it. I won't give it to you._

 _~Amy_

 _He quickly typed out, "Amy, wait," and hit the send button as quickly as he could._

 _"The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. Contact 15388 for help."_

 _"Shit," he cursed, pitching his phone across the room in a fit of anger. It shattered against the far wall, and he winced at the sound._

 _Oh, well. Didn't matter now anyway._


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The painful memory still fresh in his mind, Sonic made his way down to the beach, spotting Amy sitting cross-legged in the sand down by the water. Her tank top was torn across the back, revealing a few lines that had been cut into her skin in the madness. Her shoulder, still wrapped in a bandage, was bleeding again, and Sonic knew she'd torn the stitches hours ago but hadn't told anyone. He sat down next to her wordlessly and glanced at her face. Her emerald eyes were set on the horizon where the ocean met the atmosphere.

She smiled, so quickly he almost didn't see it. "I remember one time when we were kids, Blaze and Silver came down here to visit us and we all taught the both of them how to swim."

"Oh, I remember that," Sonic mused. "I don't think I've ever seen Blaze look so angry."

"Silver liked it," Amy noted. "Remember? He was levitating himself 20 feet off the surface and then dropping giant cannonballs."

"Leave it to Silver to make me look like a wuss for hating swimming," Sonic mumbled, catching another glance of a grin on Amy's face. Her rose-colored hair had long past come undone from its ponytail, the pieces around her face fluttering in the breeze coming off the waves.

She exhaled. "This was a good home."

"It should have been your home for a long time," Sonic shook his head. "It could have."

"You didn't make me leave," Amy interrupted. "I mean, you were part of the reason, but I chose to leave. You didn't run me out of here. Let's be clear on that."

"Do you think you would have stayed, if it weren't for what I did?" Sonic asked, suddenly curious.

Amy thought about it for a moment. The ghost of a smirk appeared on her face. "Yeah, I think I would have. God, what a boring life I would have had."

Sonic narrowed his eyes at her.

"No offense," she offered. "But I'm not you. I wouldn't have had much to do here."

"Fair enough," he shrugged. "In all honesty, there wasn't a ton for me to do here, either. You can only kick Eggman's rear so many times."

The two of them were silent for a bit. Amy tilted her head back and closed her eyes, relishing the feeling of the evening sun on her skin.

"This is where it happened, ya know," Sonic said suddenly, feeling his face heat up. "The first… the first time I kissed you."

She opened one eye and he had a sudden feeling that she was either about to break his neck or ignore him. He didn't know which was worse.

To his surprise, and to her credit, she closed her eyes again. "I remember," she acknowledged, though not enthusiastically. "I'm almost surprised you do."

"Oh, come on." He narrowed his eyes at her.

She glanced over at him. "Do you really blame me for thinking that?"

He sighed. "No, I guess not."

"Why'd you come down here?" she asked. "Just to ask me if I remember that? Because if you're going to tease me for it, you're going to regret it, I can promise you that."

Sonic sighed again, frustrated. "No, for the love of- I didn't come down here to make fun of you. You've gotten ruthless, you know that?"

Amy shrugged, unconcerned.

"I just wanted to see if you remembered is all," he finished, somewhat irritated.

"Of course I remember, dumbass," Amy shook her head. "I haven't spoken to you in years because of it. How would I possibly forget that?"

"Right…" Sonic trailed off.

She exhaled heavily. "Looking back, maybe not the most mature thing I've ever done. Running away like that. Not that it didn't end well for me, but still."

"Amy, admitting she was wrong?" He slapped a hand to his chest in mock surprise. "I'm shocked."

She glared at him before punching him in the bicep with her good arm. "Never said I was wrong."

"Fine, fine," he relented, leaning back on his elbows, his arm throbbing now. Damn, she had some power in those arms. "You know, you act all tough, but we both know you kissed me back the other night in the woods."

Amy arched an eyebrow. "Your word against mine. Who do you think they're gonna believe?"

"You're so different," Sonic blurted, sitting up and meeting her gaze. "Six years ago you would have been all over town, telling everyone within earshot. Did you really change that quickly?"

"I grew up, Sonic," Amy challenged, turning her head towards him. "Didn't have much of a choice."

He was quiet for a moment, and Amy was just starting to hope that she'd finally shut him up when he spoke.

"No."

"What do you mean, no?" she asked, incredulous.

"I mean, no, you had a choice," he argued. "Silver, he didn't have a choice. Blaze didn't have a choice. But you, you chose to leave and grow up. So don't try and pin the whole thing on me."

"You shut your mouth," she exploded, standing up so suddenly, she almost lost her balance. "You don't know jack shit about me anymore, you idiot. You haven't seen me in six years."

"I know enough!" he spoke angrily. "I know I miss the old Amy, the one who was my best friend-"

"The one who would follow you around like some stupid puppy all day, you mean," Amy argued. "You just miss having someone to boost your ego-"

"That's not true and you know it," he growled. "You're just a completely different person now."

"You're damn right I am!" Amy cried, towering over him as he stayed sitting in the sand. "I liked who I was before, before you chased me out of here, and you think I wanted to change? Look at this!" She gestured to herself. "I would have loved to stay the same happy, adorable little 15-year-old forever. And I tried, you know."

"What do you mean, you tried?" he asked crossly.

"For two weeks, I was the same person," she yelled. "I was doing just fine, until Rouge and I got into it with Metal Sonic. I looked at him, and for a second, you know who he looked like?"

He remained quiet.

"You!" Amy screamed. "He looked like YOU. And I hesitated, got shot through an artery, and almost got myself killed, all because I still had a soft spot for you."

Sonic noticed, for the first time, the long scar trailing its way down the inside of Amy's thigh like a vine.

She snorted and shook her head. "Even after I left, you were still managing to get inside my head. So yes, Sonic, for my safety and everyone else's, I had to become a totally different person. And if you don't like it, sucks for you," she finished, storming off down towards the water.

"Hey," he yelled, running after her. He finally caught up just as they were at the water's edge, the ocean reaching their toes. "I never said I didn't like it. I just said it was different. You don't ever listen!"

"At least I'm not an arrogant ass," Amy countered, her green eyes flashing.

"Oh, I'm arrogant?" he questioned, acting wounded. "God, I've never heard that one before. At least I'm not stubborn as shit!"

"You just miss having me around because you want someone to constantly tell you how perfect you are," Amy shoved him backwards with her good arm. "Go find someone else to be your adoring little pet, you jerk!"

"No, you're wrong," he shouted, catching his balance. "You're so wrong, it's not even funny anymore, Amy. You know what happened after you left?"

"What happened after I left?" she mocked.

"I lost it!" he yelled, angrier than Amy had ever seen him before. "I did love you back then, Amy, believe it or not. You up and left and it tore me apart! I haven't been the same since, and I haven't stopped loving you!" He shook his head fiercely. "So there. There's your answer. I don't think I can be any clearer with you!"

She narrowed her gaze at him. "And since when have I believed a word you said?"

Sonic sighed, all the fight gone out of him, before plopping back down in the sand. "Since before you left."

Amy was quiet, the anger leaving her body as well, before sitting down beside him again. "This beach is bad luck for us, I think," she sighed, looking out over the water.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"So what do you want from me?" she asked, looking at him seriously. "What is it that you want? You have to tell me now, before I leave again."

Gathering all his willpower, Sonic opened his mouth and told her exactly what he wanted.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Sonic raised his head at the sound of a knock on his bedroom door. It was close to midnight now, and he sat cross-legged on his bed with the window open, the ocean breeze fluttering his quills.

"Come in," he called.

Tails opened the door and popped his head in. "Mind a little company? I've got some things to tell you."

"Sure," Sonic shrugged. "I could use someone to talk to right now anyway."

That wasn't very much like him, but Tails shook it off and sat down on the bed next to him. "You want to go first, then?"

"No, you start," he replied.

"Well, the thing is…" Tails trailed off, nervous now, his tails gently tapping the bed behind him.

"You're leaving," Sonic finished for him.

The fox looked over at him, surprised. "What makes you say that?"

"Tails, in your entire life, you've never been nervous to tell me anything. That's the only thing I could think of that would make you act like this," Sonic chuckled, lowering his head. "Mind if I ask where you're going?"

"That's, well…" he hesitated again.

"Oh, something else?" Sonic asked. "It's okay, Tails, you can tell me."

"I sort of fell in love," Tails blurted, his face reddening. "With Sticks."

Sonic looked up at him, incredulous. "You're kidding. You and Sticks?"

The two were quiet for a moment.

"Who would have thought?" Sonic murmured.

"I know," Tails began. "It happened pretty fast. And I want to go with her."

"To GUN?"

"Wherever," he corrected, still blushing. "I just don't want to leave her. And let's face it, I can work from anywhere."

"Wow…" Sonic sighed. "Damn, I just can't believe you're really leaving."

"Thank you," Tails said suddenly.

"What for?"

"For everything," he continued. "You're my brother, you know that, and you've always looked after me and made sure that I was safe. So thank you, Sonic, and I want you to know how much I'm going to miss you."

"Oh, don't get sappy on me now, man," Sonic joked, trying not to let the tears threatening to spill over fall. "Who's going to fix all my stuff now?"

Tails sniffed, unashamedly tearing up. "I'll visit all the time, I swear."

"You'd better, little brother," Sonic grinned, clapping him on the shoulder. That was too much for Tails, who wrapped Sonic up in a bear hug. As he now had about three inches on the hedgehog, he almost suffocated him.

"Wow, Sticks, only a week here and you're already bringing one back with us," Amy joked, carefully placing the rest of her clothes into her duffel bag. "How'd that happen?"

"Well, you know, he just can't live without me," Sticks effused in a southern drawl, dramatically flinging her hand over her forehead before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

"I, for one, am sick of all this lovey shit," Rouge sniffed good-naturedly.

"Mhm, is that why you agreed to go on a date with Knuckles?" Sticks taunted. Rouge responded by pitching a shoe in her direction.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the bat dodged. "And, if I may be so forward, you and I were the last ones I thought would make connections on this trip." She looked pointedly at Amy, who was wearing her leggings. As her only tank top had gotten torn to shreds, she had repurposed one of the old red dresses (ugh) hanging in her closet, chopping off the bottom to make a quick substitute tank.

"Don't give me that look," Amy retorted, not even having to look up to know what her friend was referring to. "Everything went like it was supposed to. We did our job. Now we can go home."

"I thought for sure blue dumbass would be all over you," Sticks admitted. "Not that I wouldn't have killed him for it."

"Well, now you don't have to kill anybody," Amy smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

 _"I…" Sonic stuttered, unable to find the correct words._

 _"Spit it out," Amy demanded._

 _"I want things to be back to normal," he started, knowing that wasn't quite what he was going for. She saw right through it._

 _"Yeah, well, unless you can turn back time without Silver's help, you're shit outta luck," she snorted. "Seriously, Sonic. You're wasting both of our time."_

 _"This-this isn't easy for me!" he cried in frustration, grabbing a fistful of wet sand and hurling it towards the water. "I can't just do this all at once!"_

 _"Why not? That's how you do everything else," she pointed out. "You are the fastest thing alive, you know. Except when it comes to me, obviously."_

 _"Why can't we just go back to-"_

 _"What, go back to me chasing you around town? Not a chance in hell. I've got other things to do, like my job. And-" she paused to glance down at her phone, "-it's getting late. I need to head back if I'm going to have enough time to pack before we leave tomorrow."_

 _"Leave tomorrow?" he asked blankly._

 _"Yeah," she shrugged, getting up and dusting sand off the back of her shorts. "We did our job. Time for us to go."_

 _"Oh."_

 _"Anyway. Good luck figuring all this out," she indicated, walking backwards, staring curiously at him. "Maybe I'll see you around someday."_

 _He opened his mouth to stop her, to say something, ANYTHING, but she turned quickly and started on the trail back up to her old house, her windblown hair sticking up in all directions and her bandaged shoulder slowly but surely streaking tiny drips of blood down the small of her back, the first time that she was too quick for him._

"Why did we have to get up so early to leave?" Rouge groaned, flopping back onto Amy's pink bedspread. "Would it have really killed you to stay an extra day?"

"I've got stuff to do back home," Amy shrugged. "You can stay if you want."

"Yeah, Rouge, any particular reason you might want to stay behind?" Sticks grinned, nudging the bat's outer thigh with her elbow.

"If you don't shut up, you're gonna be too dead to come with us," Rouge growled.

"Sorry, I just can't help it," Sticks laughed. "It's too easy."

"If you two are done taking shots at each other, the plane's here," Amy indicated, slightly annoyed. "And it's about a 20 minute walk to the runway." She rolled her injured shoulder. Tails had restitched it for her last night after the disaster that had been her beach talk with Sonic (but only after lecturing her on busting them open in the first place). Still painful, but not her first priority.

"What are you going to do with this place, anyway?" Sticks asked, looking around the cabin. "Not like anyone is planning on using it anytime soon."

"Actually," Amy smiled in spite of herself, "that's not entirely true."

Sticks and Rouge looked at it quizzically.

"It's going to serve as a safe house," she explained. "For any of us to use any time we're down here, especially Blaze and Silver. Something tells me they're going to be hanging around for a while."

"That's a great idea," Rouge grinned. "I wouldn't mind coming back to visit myself."

"I'll bet," Sticks muttered good-naturedly, and the bat bopped her over the head with a closed fist.

Slinging their bags over their shoulders, the three girls proceeded out into the living room and to the front door. Tails was waiting there for them, his duffel sitting next to him.

"Ready, then?" he asked, standing up as they approached.

"Ready," Sticks affirmed, moving to stand next to him, almost unconsciously. "Are you?"

"I think so," Tails pondered. "I can come visit. And I said my goodbyes to Sonic last night."

Sticks grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "You don't have to do this, you know."

He looked at her with enough passion in his eyes to make her blush slightly. "Yeah, I do," he nodded, smiling.

"All right, kiddies, our chariot awaits," Rouge announced, making her way out into the dawn heat already beginning to descend on the beach.

Sticks and Tails made their way down the stairs, and Amy almost followed them, but she stopped in the threshold of the doorway, turning back around.

"Amy?" Sticks questioned.

"You guys go ahead. I'm right behind you," she promised.

Sticks glanced at Tails, who nodded slightly, and the two of them started down the road after Rouge.

Amy glanced around the living space of her old house. Some things were still left where they had been when she had run the first time. Old pictures of her and the team still hung haphazardly on the walls. The pink curtains had long since been taken down, and the furniture was slightly bleached from the unrelenting sun beaming in through the wide windows. She ran her hand over the rough door, imprinting the feeling of it against her finger pads in her mind.

"Bye, house," she whispered, feeling suddenly sad to be leaving. A tear pricked her vision and she quickly blinked it away, backing down the stairs and pulling the door in front of her. She turned to see Tails waiting for her.

Wordlessly, she walked to meet him, and he put an arm around her shoulders, leading her down the dusty path as the sun began to peek from along the water's horizon.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The plane was just as uncomfortable as it had been the first time around. Amy rested her chin on her fist, watching the clouds sprint by outside the window. The dawning light had brightened into full-fledged summer sun, illuminating Boom Beach down below them. In a few moments, it would be behind her for good.

Sticks and Tails were sitting in the seats behind her, chatting away about nothing and everything. Amy was happy for her, but it also made her a bit sad, seeing her friend find love so easily. She didn't even have to try.

She glanced down again at the remains of Boom Beach, just in time to see a blue streak cross directly in front of the ocean and back into the woods.

She smiled to herself. It was comforting to know that some things never changed.

"Amy really just gave us her place?" Silver asked, opening the front door and looking around. "Why would she do that?"

Blaze smiled cryptically. "I think Amy knows the importance of having a place to go. Especially with the person you love."

"Hey, who said I love you?" Silver teased, grabbing her up and spinning her around, earning a laugh. "You making things up again?"

"I can just meander on back to my dimension, if that's what you want," she giggled. He set her down and put a hand on her shoulder.

"If you ever go back to your dimension without me, I reserve the right to go insane," he replied, doing his best to put on a serious face.

"Fair," she noted, grinning. He pulled her in suddenly, pressing his lips against hers passionately, yet somehow softly at the same time. She squeaked slightly at the quick movement, but easily melted against him after that, running her thumbs over his collarbone, memorizing the shape of him. He pulled back slightly and gazed at her, questioning what she wanted to do.

"Make love to me," she murmured, intertwining their fingers and meeting his gaze with fiery determination.

"Blaze, a-are you sure?" he stammered, blushing slightly. He'd never, she'd never, and especially never with each other.

"I finally can, without having to fear for either of our safety," she explained softly. "And I'm so in love with you."

Silver, hesitation having disappeared, swept her off the ground, holding her bridal-style, and started making his way towards the guest room.

"Nobody tells Amy we 'christened' her home, right?" she joked, but her face quickly became serious as Silver shut the door behind them.

"Where are Tails and Sticks?" Amy asked, putting her feet up on the couch and booting up her computer for the first time in a week. They were finally back at GUN headquarters, and she and Rouge were in the lounge.

"God only knows," Rouge rolled her eyes. "I have a feeling that's a question that neither of us want the answer to."

Amy laughed as her best friend made imitation moaning noises. "Oh, dear God."

"Sorry," Rouge laughed. "Couldn't help it."

Amy sighed, shutting her computer again. Nothing new there. "I think I'm going to head back to my apartment," she told Rouge. "Unpack, you know."

"Amy," Rouge replied, suddenly serious. "Are you sure you're all right?"

To her great surprise, Amy, the ever-stoic and hardened agent, shook her head. "No. I'm not sure. But I think it's best if I spend a little time alone. No offense."

"None taken," the bat shook her head. "I'm here if you need me. And, Amy?"

"Yeah?" Amy questioned, turning on her way out.

"We all love you," Rouge grinned sincerely.

"I love you guys too," Amy winked, before turning and leaving for good.

She sighed as she entered her apartment. It wasn't nearly as homey as her place in Boom Beach had been, but there were at least a few pictures of her, Rouge, and Sticks on the walls on their many adventures. The walls themselves were white, a staunch contrast of the pink she used to love.

Frustrated, she flopped down on the couch, dropping her duffel beside her as she did so. Her entire body was exhausted, and her shoulder hurt. Wincing, she pushed herself up off the couch and made her way over to the mirror in the hallway. She turned and gently peeled the bandage off her shoulder.

It was a gruesome sight. Her skin was red and swollen around the stitches Tails had placed, although that was to be expected.

She sighed, replaced the bandage, and headed back over to the couch, picking up her duffel to unpack.

Before she could make it back into her bedroom, though, there was a knock at the door.

"I just got home," she groaned aloud, dropping the bag again and throwing her head back in frustration before making her way to the front door and unlatching it.

She swung it open to see a familiar-looking, out-of-breath blue hedgehog.

"Hi," she said, furrowing her brow in confusion. "Uh, did I forget something?"

"No," he breathed, "I did."

She stared at him, not understanding.

"You were right," Sonic continued, making his way into the apartment.

"Uh, come in?" Amy questioned, but he was too busy making his point to notice.

"You were always the one to chase me. Right? And that's not fair to you," he turned to look at her.

"I-I guess…" she stammered. "Look, Sonic, just forget-"

"No," he cut her off angrily.

She raised her eyebrows at the sudden change in tone.

"I'm done trying to forget about the past, and I'm especially done trying to forget about you," he ground out. "If you want me to chase you for a change, I will. It's my turn. You spent all those years doing your best to make me feel wanted, and loved, and special. And I never even tried to return the favor."

Her mouth dropped open slightly. He was actually starting to understand.

"So, I'm going to return the favor," he exhaled, stepping closer to her. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life returning the favor if that's what it takes."

Amy was completely frozen in her spot, her emerald eyes wide with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

"Amy, I… I love you," he sighed, looking down at the ground before meeting her gaze again. "I think that I always have. And I'm not about to sit here and watch you get away from me again. You have this incredible life here, and I don't want that to change one bit for you, because I know you're happy. But I also need you to know that I'm in love with you. And," he gave a lopsided smile, "I'd like to chase you for a while, if that's okay."

Quick as a flash, he took her face in his hands, tilted it up, and kissed her gently on the lips. She inhaled a breath, surprised at the sudden turn of events, and felt her face heat up.

How embarrassing, that he was able to make her feel like this.

Just as fast as the kiss had begun, he pulled back and started out the door. She was still frozen in place, staring at him in shock.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Amy," he grinned, before leaving and closing the door behind him.

Amy breathed in, feeling lightheaded, and put a hand to her chest to ensure that her heart hadn't just beat its way out of her. Smiling slightly and shaking her head, she looked up at the door.

"See you tomorrow, Sonic."


	29. THE END

**THE END**

Thank you so much to all my viewers for this story. It's become more popular than I could have ever imagined, and I can honestly say that I had an incredible time writing it. I hope I can continue to put out more stories for you guys to enjoy :)

Jules


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